mods please lmk if this violates the rules. i’m posting here because I write about the mob/casino and many relevant themes that are important elements of the Sopranos, in my opinion. I think they’re of the same medium and genre so wanted to post here. Hope that’s alright. Cheers! (11 min read) ————————————————————————
EDIT 2: TL;DR -
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
———————-
Every good filmmaker makes the same movie over and over again—Martin Scorsese is no different
Scorsese's Casino is a phenomenal story of the condoned chaos and "legalized robbery" that happens on a daily basis to gamblers who bett away thousands of dollars and return each day for more “FinDom,” but without any of the sexual sadism. The whole scam only persists because the house always wins: the odds are stacked 3 million to one on the slot machines, but the same shmucks return wide-eyed each day hoping for a different outcome, devoid of any rational re-evaluation required to maintain their grasp on reality, and the liquidity of their bank accounts.
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
Robert De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, recruited by his childhood friend Nick "Nicky" Santorno to help run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by an investment made with the Teamsters’ pension fund. Ace’s job is to keep the bottom line flowing so that the Mafia's skimming operation can continue seamlessly. De Niro's character felt like half-way between Travis from Taxi Driver (of course, nowhere as mentally disturbed) and half of the addictive excess, greed, and eccentric business-mind of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Ace’s attention to detail gives him a rain-man-esque sensibility; his ability to see every scam, trick, hand signal, and maneuver happening on the casino floor make him the perfect manager of the casino, and take his managerial style to authoritarian heights in his pursuit of order and control over what is an inherently unstable and dynamic scheme; betting, hedging outcomes, and walking the line to keep the money flowing and the gamblers coming back. I’m not claiming Ace is autistic, I'm no clinician, but his managerial sensibilities over the daily operations of the casino, from the dealers to the pit bosses, to the shift managers, are to the point of disturbing precision, he has eyes everywhere, and knows how to remove belligerent customers with class and professionalism, but ultimately is short sighted in “reading” the human beings he is in relationship with. Ace is frustratingly naive and gullible in his partnership with Nicky and the threat he poses to him, and in his marriage with Ginger.
Ace has no personal aspirations to extract millions of dollars for himself out of the casino corruption venture. Ace simply wants the casino to operate as efficiently as possible, and he has no qualms about being a pawn of the bosses. While Sam, “the Golden Jew”—as he is called—is the real CEO of the whole enterprise, directing things at Tangiers for the benefit of the bosses “back home.” Ace’s compliance is juxtaposed with Nicky’s outrage upon feeling used: he gripes about how he is in “the trenches” while the bosses sit back and do nothing. Note that none of the activity Nicky engages in outside of the casino—doing the work of “taking Las Vegas over”—is authorized by the bosses. Ultimately Nicky’s inability to exert control over his crew and the street lead to his demise.
In the end, capitalism, and all that happens in the confines of the casino, is nothing but “organized violence.” Sound familiar? The mob has a capitalist structure in its organization and hierarchy: muscle men collect and send money back to the bosses who do not labor tirelessly “in the trenches.” The labor of the collectors is exploited to create the profits of their bosses. The entire business-model of the Mafia is predicated on usury and debtors defaulting on loans for which the repayment is only guaranteed by the threat of violence. But this dynamic is not without its internal contradictions and tensions, as seen in Casino.
In a comedic turn, the skimmers get skimmed! The bosses begin to notice the thinning of the envelopes and lighter and lighter suitcases being brought from the casino to Kansas City, “back home”. The situation continues to spin out of control, but a mid-tier mafioso articulates the careful balance required for the skimming operation to carry on: to keep the skimming operation functioning, the skimmers need to be kept loyal and happy. It’s a price the bosses have to pay to maintain the operation, “leakage” in their terms. Ace’s efficient management and precision in maintaining order within Tangiers is crucial for the money to keep flowing. But Ace’s control over the casino slips more and more as the movie progresses. We see this as the direct result of Nicky’s ascendance as mob kingpin in Vegas, the chaos he creates cannot be contained and disrupts the profits and delicate dynamics that keep the scam running.
Of course I can’t help myself here! We should view Scorsese’s discography, and the many portrayals of capitalist excess not as celebratory fetishization, but a critique of the greed and violence he so masterfully captures on film. See the Wolf of Wall Street for its tale of money as the most dangerous drug of them all, and the alienation—social and political—showcased in Taxi Driver. Scorsese uses the mob as a foil to the casino to attack the supposed monopoly the casino holds on legitimate, legal economic activity that rests on institutionalized theft. When juxtaposed with the logic of organized crime, we begin to see that the two—Ace and Nick—are not so different after all.
The only dividing line between the casino and organized crime is the law. Vegas is a lawless town yes, “the Wild West” as Nicky puts it, but there are laws in Vegas. The corruption of the political establishment and ruling elites is demonstrated when they pressure Ace to re-hire an incompetent employee who he fired for his complicity in a cheating scam or his stupidity in letting the slot machines get rigged; nepotism breeds mediocrity. In the end, Ace’s fall is the result of the rent-seeking behavior that the Vegas ruling class wields to influence the gaming board to not even permit Ace a fair hearing for his gaming license, which would’ve given him the lawful authority to officially run Tangiers. The elites use the political apparatus of the State to resist the new gang in town, the warring faction of mob-affiliated casino capitalists. While the mob’s only weapon to employ is that of violence. The mafia is still subservient to the powers that be within the political and economic establishment of Vegas, and they’re told “this is not your town.”
I’d like to make the most salient claim of this entire review now. Casino is a western film. The frontier of the Wild West is Vegas in this case, where the disorder of the mob wreaks havoc on, an until then, an “untapped market.” The investment scheme that the Teamsters pension fund is exploited for as seed capital, is an attempt to remain in the confines of the law while extracting as much value as possible through illegal and corrupt means for the capitalist class of the mob (and the ultimately dispensable union president). Tangiers exists in the liminal space of condoned economic activity as a legal and otherwise standard casino. While the violence required to maintain the operation, corrupts the legal legitimacy it never fully enjoyed from the beginning. This mirrors the bounty economy of the West and the out-sourcing of the law and the execution of the law, to bounty hunters. There is no real authority out in the frontier, the killer outlaw on the run is not so different from the bounty hunter who enjoys his livelihood by hunting down the killers. Yet, he himself is not the State. The wide-lens frame of Ace and Nicky meeting in the desert felt like a direct homage to the iconic image of the Western standoff. The conflict between Ace and Nick, the enforcer and the mastermind, is an approximation of the conflicts we might see in John Wayne’s films. The casino venture itself could be seen as an analogy of the frontier-venturism of railroad pioneers going to lay track to develop the West into a more industrial region.
I would have believed that this was a documentary about how the mob took over control of the Vegas casinos in the 1970-80s … if it were not for the viewer being expected to believe that Robert De Niro could play a Jew; it's hard to believe a man with that accent and the roles he’s played his entire career could be a “CRAZY JEW FUCK!!” I kid! But alas, De Niro is a class act and the last of the many greats of a bygone era. At times, it felt like Joe Pesci lacked talent as an actor, but his portrayal of the scummy, backstabbing bastard in Nicky was genuinely remarkable, but I might consider his performance the weak point of the movie. It’s weird to see a man that short, be that much of physical menace. There are a number of Sopranos actors in Casino. I’m sure Vincent Chase watched the movie and said to himself, “bet, i’ll cast half of these guys.”The set design and costumes were gorgeous. The styles and fashion of the time were spectacular. Scorsese’s signature gratuitous violence featured prominently, but tastefully. The camera work, tracking shots through the casino and spatial movement was incredible and I thought the cinematography was outstanding, the Western-esque wide lens in the desert was worthy of being a framed still.
The Nicky//Ace dynamic is excellent and the two play off of each other well. The conflict between the two of them escalates gradually, and then Nicky’s betrayal of Ace by cheating with Ginger marks the final break between the two of them. Nicky’s mob faculties represent a brutal, violent theft that is illegal and requires the enforcement of violence by organized crime. Despite the illegal embezzlement and corruption at play with the “skimming” operation at work at the casino, the general business model of the casino stands in contrast to the obscene violence of the loan sharks. Ace operates an intelligent operation of theft through the casino, and his hands-on management approach is instrumental to the success of the casino. Nicky’s chaos pervades the casino, and the life and activities of “the street” begin to bleed into Ace’s ability to maintain order in the casino. “Connected” types begin frequenting the casino, and Ace unknowingly forces one particularly rude gambler to leave the casino, who happens to have mob ties with Nicky. The “organized violence” of the casino cannot stay intact perfectly, because the very thing holding it together is the presence of the mob. Nicky is in Vegas as the enforcer and tasked with protecting Ace but his independent, entrepreneurial (shall we call them?) aspirations lead him to attempt to overtake what he realizes is a frontier for organized crime to brutalize and exploit the characters of “the street” (pimps, players, addicts, dealers, and prostitutes) and the owners of small private businesses.
Nicky is reckless, “when i plant my flag out here you won’t need your [casino/gaming] license” Nicky thinks he, and Ace, can bypass the regulations and bureaucratic legal measures by sheer force of violence alone. But ultimately Nicky is shortsighted and doesn’t have a real attachment to the success of the casino. After all, he isn’t getting profits from it (or much anyway) and isn’t permitted to play a real, active role in its daily functions because of his belligerent, untamed personality. Nicky has no buy-in that would motivate him to follow the rules or to work within the legal parts of the economy, it’s not the game he knows how to play, and win. All that he is loyal to, or deferent too, is the bosses back home; for whom he maintains absolute, uncompromising loyalty to, but still holds intense spite for.
And now to the more compelling element of the narrative. Sam “Ace” Rothstein is positioned as remarkably intelligent, he makes informed decisions that aid in his skill as a gambler, he can read people to determine whether he’s being conned, he has an attention to detail—aided by the casino’s surveillance apparatus which monitors cheating—that is almost unbelievable. Ace knows when he’s being cheated, he knows how to rig the game so that the house always wins, enacting psychological warfare to break down the confidence of would be proficient gamblers, who could threaten Tangiers’ bottom line. But in the end, the greatest gamble Ace makes is his marriage to Ginger. Ginger is the seductive, charismatic, and flirtatious madame who makes her money with tricks and her sexual power. Ginger works as a prostitute, seducing men, and extracting everything she can, almost as a sort of sexual-financial vampirism.
Ginger is the bad bet Ace can’t stop making even when she destroys his life, her own, and puts their daughter Amy in harm’s way. Ginger is the gamble Ace made wrong, but he keeps going back to her every time, trying to rationalize how she might change and be different the next time. Ace is not a victim to Ginger’s antics. Ginger makes it clear who she is: an addict, alcoholic, manic shopaholic who will use all of her powers to extract everything she can from everyone around her. She uses everyone to her advantage and manipulates men with her sexual power in exchange for their money and protection. Ginger had a price for her hand in marriage: $1 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewelry that are left to her and her alone as a sort of emergency fund.
Ace’s numerous attempts to buy Ginger’s love—and the clear fact that no matter how expensive the fur coat and how grand the mansion, none of it would ever be enough to satisfy her—mirrored Jordan Belfort’s relationship with Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street. Both relationships carried the same manic volatility and conflict over child custody was found in both films, with the roles reversed in the respective films. Ginger may be irredeemable and a pathological liar, but Ace can’t claim that she wasn’t clear with him; when he asked her to marry him, Ginger said she didn’t love Ace. Ace replied that love could be “developed” but required a foundation of trust to develop. That trust was never there to begin with. The love was doomed from the start to destroy the two of them; two addicts, two gamblers, lying on a daily basis to one another and themselves about reality to justify their respective existences, the marriage, and Ace’s livelihood. And as Ginger pointed out, “I should have never married him. He’s a gemini, a triple gemini … a snake” Maybe astrology has some truth to it after all.
Now I’m not licensed (but hey neither was Ace, and he ran a casino empire!), but Ginger has the inklings of a borderline personality: her manic depression, narcissism, drug and alcohol abuse, and constant begging for forgiveness all seem indications of a larger psychological disorder at play. In the end, Ginger runs away with all the money Ace left her and finds her people in Los Angeles, the pimps, whores, and addicts she fits in with, in turn exploit and kill her for 3 grand in mint coins by giving her a ‘hot’ dose.
Overall, Casino is an incredible cinematic experience. I highly recommend watching this and seeing it as part of Scorsese's anthology of commentary on our economic system and its human victims. I’d argue that Casino, Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman all fit together nicely into a trilogy of the Scorsesean history of finance and corruption from the 70s to the 90s.
————-
EDIT 2: TL;DR —
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.

A Cinematic Guide to The Weeknd: Pt 3. My Dear Melancholy and After Hours

My Dear Melancholy

Gaspar Noe/Cannes Film Festival
The My Dear Melancholy era notable for being a time when The Weeknd was in proximity to a lot of serious directors. While he’s had a foot in Hollywood for awhile, 2017 through 2019 he was actively engaging with filmmakers like the Safdies Brothers, Gaspar Noe, and Claire Denis, amongst others. While he had been actively courting the Safdies since Good Time was released, he attended the 2018 Cannes Film Festival where he crossed paths Noe, whose film Climax took home a number awards at Cannes. Noe’s Enter the Void had previously served as an inspiration for Kiss Land, and for MDM (and later After Hours) seem to call back to Noe’s other films, like Irreversible and Love, which are both twisted depictions of heartbreak. On the other hand, Climax is about a French dance troupe who accidentally take LSD, and according to Noe is not a “message” movie. It is an audacious psychedelic technical exercise, with numerous long takes and highly choreographed set pieces. The idea for Noe, who had previously captured the feeling of drugs in previous films, was to do the opposite, and present the objectively reality of drugs, watching people high from a sober perspective.
Noe is a rather strong advocate of film, and the opening scene of Climax features VHS boxes of a number of films that have influenced his filmmaking. Two of note are Schizophrenia, otherwise known as Angst, one of Noe’s favorite films which The Weeknd name checked to the Safdies, and Possession, which would go on to be an influence on After Hours (more on this later). He is also said to have sat next to Benicio Del Toro at Cannes, which means he likely caught some of the Un Certain Regard section, where Del Toro served as a jury member. Outside of that section, there were a few other films of interest such as The House That Jack Built from Lars Von Trier (The Weeknd has previously expressed affection for Von Trier’s Antichrist), Mandy from Pastos Costamos, and music video director Romain Gavras’s The World Is Yours, as well as a restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Noe has referred to as the film that got him into filmmaking.
https://preview.redd.it/qga7a3l8ct261.png?width=910&format=png&auto=webp&s=371cf20d42ee8783cc23bfe7f2cfa16a0a927a0e
Asian Cinema
Later in 2018, The Weeknd continued his globetrotting with a tour of Asia. He once claimed in an interview that whenever visiting a foreign country he only watches films from there. I’ve previously written about the influence of Asian cinema on Kiss Land, and there’s not enough work from the MDM era to glean anything cinematically adjacent to this, but now would be a good time to mention that the "Call Out My Name" video was heavily inspired by the work of famed Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. The Asian tour poster seems to be a reference to Ichi the Killer, which leads us to Takashi Miike. Though he is notoriously prolific across a number of genres, his most popular works internationally are genre melding blends of horror, comedy and crime, most notably Audition, Ichi the Killer and Gozu. Another film worth mentioning is Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon’s masterwork about a pop star’s mysterious stalker that The Weeknd posted about on Instagram before. Bloody and haunting, the film was a major influence on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream. In Interviews he has also mentioned a number of Korean films, such as The Wailing, I Saw the Devil and Oldboy. While Wong Kar Wai was previously mentioned as an influence on Beauty Behind the Madness, also worth mentioning is the work of John Woo, specifically A Better Tomorrow, well known for the shot of smoking a cigar off money, and Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau’s crime classic which served has the basis for Scorsese’s The Departed.
https://preview.redd.it/fx7o9s2bct261.png?width=642&format=png&auto=webp&s=0fec2f841e9d3b09104238d0f89595daa6140faa
https://preview.redd.it/n4x7fiy9ct261.png?width=1316&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a9650263272518216fc5f36913e80a10d2b0a8e

After Hours

Martin Scorsese
While After Hours more so than any other Weeknd album is bursting at the seams with cinematic references, the influence of Martin Scorsese stands above all. Similar to The Weeknd’s body of work, many Scorsese’s are explorations of violence and masculinity, investigating them from a perspective that depending on who you ask (and how they’re feeling) glamorizes, condemns or just simply presents the reality of characters on the fringes of society.
While there are direct references to a number of prominent Scorsese films, what’s interesting is that his influence also reverberates in other films/filmmakers that influence After Hours. Todd Phillips’s Joker is in effect an homage to Scorsese’s loner-centric New York films, and the Safdie Brothers have been putting their own millennial spin on the type of 70s gritty thriller that Scorsese trafficked in (Scorsese was also a producer on Uncut Gems). Specific Scorsese works will be discussed more in depth in the requisite sections, but it is worth mentioning upfront what a prominent role that Scorsese plays in the nucleus of After Hours.
https://preview.redd.it/wcds9qpdct261.png?width=1196&format=png&auto=webp&s=246c560c72340782e26ad03b8ff63367999eaadd
Urban HorroIsolation
With After Hours, The Weeknd departs from the slicker sounds and influences that permeated Starboy and returns to the cinematic grittiness of Beauty Behind the Madness. While urban horror is a theme that permeates throughout The Weeknd as a project overall, there is a thorough line to be drawn here that follows a number of 70s and 80s cinematic and aesthetic references. For one thing, while the initial bandaged nose was a reference to Chinatown (previously, The Weeknd has a Kiss Land demo titled "Roman Polanski"), the full bandaged face that is so prominently featured throughout the After Hours era is a classic cinematic visual trope that was especially prominent throughout 60s and 80s, though it saw a slight re-emergence in the 2010s. The fully bandaged face is often used to remake someone in the image of another, usually against their will (The Skin I Live In, Eyes Without Face), or as a case of mistaken identity and doppelgängers (Good Night Mommy, Scalpel), themes present throughout much of After Hours. The "Too Late" video acknowledges these references, but instead presents the bandages on two Los Angeles models recovering from plastic surgery, in a nod to a famous Steven Meisel’s photoshoot for Vogue Italia.
https://preview.redd.it/dtbxjc3ict261.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=66a98cc3cba73d502f8586a215a65cc41c5408a1
The “masks” people wear is another horror trope that is featured prominently on After Hours, and this is best seen in the red suit character. One important reference in the film is to Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill, where a serial killer is targeting the patients of a psychiatrist (any more on this film will veer towards spoiler territory). The Weeknd is on the record as saying Jim Carrey’s The Mask as being a large influence on the Red Suit character, it being one of the first film’s he watched in theaters. One of the more complex references would be to Joker. While it sort of an in-joke that the character of the Joker is commonly overanalyzed and misinterpreted, referencing Todd Phillips’s Joker is more nuanced because it is in essence a full on homage to Martin Scorsese’s New York films, most notably Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, which focus on eccentric loners, and can both be seen as cautionary tale of urban isolation, a theme explored perhaps in songs like "Faith." The King of Comedy revolves around a would be obsessive stand up Rupert Pupkin haggling his way to perform on late night TV, with The Weeknd’s talk show appearances being a prominent part of the early After Hours marketing, most notably in the “short film”. This idea of isolated and compressed urbanites recurs throughout After Hours and it’s films.
https://preview.redd.it/egap17ttdt261.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=1aab204ac0845a7df74ceeff6d1f714274f9ace0
The idea of urban repression is in the subway scene of the After Hours short film. The entire film itself is something of a reference to the subway scene to Possession (another Gaspar Noe favorite), mimicking the (also subway set) scene in which Isabelle Adjani’s Anna convulses on the subway due to a miscarriage, as well as Jacob’s Ladder, a 90s cult classic horror film starring Tim Robbins as a Vietnam vet (like Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle) who is experiencing demonic hallucinations, encountering them in the subway and later at a party he attends, splitting the scene into two.
https://preview.redd.it/g53copgmct261.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d29e368ae695d295b36039e86125ccfd7b4eb88
Las Vegas
As always, The Weeknd once again grounds After Hours with a strong sense of place, this time setting the album against a nocturnal odyssey through Las Vegas. One of the most prominent films is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s book. This is directly referenced in the "Heartless" video, which sees The Weeknd and Metro Boomin in the Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro roles as they tumble through a Las Vegas casino. The Weeknd has gone on the record to state that the famous red suit character was influenced by Sammy Davis Jr.’s character in the film Poor Devil. However, similar red suit has also been sported by a number of Vegas characters, most notably Richard Pryor and Robert De Niro’s Sam Rothstein in Martin Scorsese’s Casino. With the red suit, The Weeknd seems to be playing with the idea of a devil-ish other, another side of his personality that emerges in Las Vegas.
https://preview.redd.it/gjow6hq2dt261.png?width=1992&format=png&auto=webp&s=10a379bc26df54af88064bf64813d5cdd29775d9
While the city lights are the oft discussed part of part of Las Vegas, it should be noted that similar to Beauty Behind the Madness, the desert that surrounds Las Vegas is just as important to the juxtaposition of its beauty. The "Until I Bleed Out" video ends/"Snowchild" video in the desert, similar to the confrontation between Robert De Niro’s and Joe Pesci’s showdown in the desert in Casino, as well as Joe Pesci's death in Goodfellas. The idea of a hedonistic desert playground also bears semblance to Westworld, both the film and the TV show. The desert seems to represent some sort of freedom to The Weeknd, as the "Snowchild" video portrays the desert as a pensive location for reflection, as well as the "In Your Eyes" video showing the girl prominently dancing with the dismembered head out in the open, in reference to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another prominent desert film.
https://preview.redd.it/98ec10wxct261.png?width=1168&format=png&auto=webp&s=45e29aa361fa41ff74e2a6017e203015bdcbc6c3
New York/The Safdies
Despite it’s Las Vegas setting, After Hours also takes a good amount from films set in New York, most notably Martin Scorsese’s 1983 film After Hours. Besides the title, After Hours is similarly about a twisting and turning nighttime odyssey. The film stars Griffin Dunne as Paul, a working class stiff who heads downtown to rendezvous with a woman he met at a diner earlier that night. Of course, things don’t turn out the way they should, chaos ensues, and Paul is set on a dangerous trek back uptown. Like the film, the album After Hours is set off by a woman (though the album takes more stock in romantic endeavors), seems to be set over a single night (or at least a condensed period of time), and involves similar chaos and misadventures (sirens at night at the end of Faith). Tonally, After Hours the film is more comedic perhaps than After Hours the album, however The Weeknd is on the record as having said that "Heartless" and "Blinding Lights" placement on the album is intended to be somewhat comedic, reflecting exaggerated machismo and ecstasy, respectively (to comedic effect).
https://preview.redd.it/f3w7yz4pdt261.png?width=1346&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe7e4f003987fd843020a42a5b53f94092984267
Another of the most prominent filmmakers of After Hours are the Safdies, who featured The Weeknd in Uncut Gems. They also served as a link to Oneohtrix Point Never, who scored their last two films and later worked After Hours. I believe there are three major film tropes (not genres) that inspired After Hours, all of which the Safdies’s have engaged with. There is the one-long-night films, in which a character spends one-long-night on the run from whatever chaos and forces may be that they left in their path. This can be seen in the Good Time, as well as After Hours (the movie). Then, there is the descent-into-madness type, where a character slowly loses grip with reality and ends up in over their head (something like Scarface or Breaking Bad, but for our purposes Jacob’s Ladder can be categorized here as well), which the Safdies did with Uncut Gems. Lastly, but maybe most importantly, the Safdies also explored toxic romance (more on this later) in their less seen film Heaven Knows What, about two heroin addicts and the destructiveness their love brings out in each other, an idea that recurs throughout After Hours on songs like "Until I Bleed Out" and "Nothing Compares." A recurring song throughout Heaven Knows What is Isao Tomita’s synth version of Debussy’s "Claire De Lune", which is featured in some episodes of Memento Mori and bears some resemblance to the start of "Alone Again".
https://preview.redd.it/em255b5qdt261.png?width=1344&format=png&auto=webp&s=a5226c9496d0ae5c14b6d6c05e16f5ea18678a9a
Obsession/Toxic Romance
While love and lust and the ups and downs with it have been a formative part of The Weeknd’s ideology and themes, I don’t think it would be remiss to say that After Hours is perhaps his most outwardly romantic album. Despite this, one of the major arcs of the album is toxicity that comes with it, which a number of already mentioned films deal with. While "In Your Eyes" is one of the more romantic and accessible songs on the album, a re-assessment of it Ala Sting’s “Every Breathe You Take” could frame it as lonely obsessing, such as Travis Bickle’s infatuation with Jodie Foster’s teenage prostitute Iris, Joker's fixation on Murray Franklin, Rupert Pupkin’s obsession with Jerry Langford. Casino also deals with toxic romance, another prominent theme in After Hours, best seen in the love triangle that forms between Sam, his partner Nicky and his wife Ginger, played by Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone respectively.
https://preview.redd.it/eq1ioijvdt261.png?width=898&format=png&auto=webp&s=f9e4b781ee60762ae767c4dbd92066357ebc24b0
In almost all of the After Hours’s video content, The Weeknd seems to constantly meet his demise at the hands of women. Another interesting reference that may be something of a reach is to Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about Reynolds Woodcock, a couture dressmaker loosely based on Cristobal Balenciaga and his muse Alma, played by Daniel Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps, respectively. The film delves into their dysfunctional relationship, with Woodcock berating her and Alma poisoning his tea to keep him dependent on her. One of the highpoint of the film is a New Years Eve Party that bears strong resemblance to the "Until I Bleed Out" video. While the balloons may just be a callback to his earlier work, there is something about the color grading/temperature and the production design of the "Until I Bleed Out" video (as well as parts of the "Blinding Lights" video) that made me immediately think of Phantom Thread. A similar relationship is seen in the German horror film Der Fan, which The Weeknd has mentioned in a recent interview. In Der Fan, a young girl Simone spends her days obsessing over popstar R, until she finally encounters him outside his studio. The film is similar to the aforementioned Takashi Miike’s Audition in its exploration of obsession and idealization. In the film, an older man puts up a fake casting call to search for the perfect girlfriend. While Audition explores these themes from an Eastern perspective of societal pressure, Der Fan explores it through a Western lens of pop idolization and idealization. Both films deal with the idea that despite outward appearances, the perfect partner does not exist, and anyone that claims to be (or has the expectations put on them) is not who they seem.
https://preview.redd.it/3m661q62et261.png?width=1342&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9377018cb53f67cf7ce95b24392afb471e4aec1
One film he has spoken at length about is Trouble Everyday, Claire Denis’s arthouse vampire movie. The film stars Vincent Gallo as Shane, a scientist who travels to Paris under the guise of his honeymoon to track down core, a woman who he was once obsessed with who has now become a vampire. Core is locked up in a basement but sometimes sneaks out to seduce and consume unwilling victims. This seems to be where some of the bloody face stuff comes from, but I believe it’s influence is a little more conceptual. To me, a good companion film to Trouble Everyday is American Psycho, which seems to also have been a thematic influence on After Hours. Both films concern idealized version of masculinity and femininity, both very sexual and physical, but hostile as well. American Psycho ends with Patrick Bateman confessing to the killing of a prostitute, but no one believe him. Trouble Everyday ends with Shane killing Core, but Shane is unable to arouse himself after that except through violence. Koji Wakamatsu, a former Yakuza turned prominent extreme Japanese filmmaker (and a major influence on Gaspar Noe) is quoted as saying “For me, violence, the body and sex are an integral part of life.” Despite being hollow, idealized impressions of the self, a vampire and as a banker (cold, seductive bloodsuckers = monsters), Patrick Bateman and Core represent the Frankenstein-ian relationship between sexuality and violence, which I believe is the main theme of After Hours. Truly, we hurt the ones we love.
https://preview.redd.it/zfllbd83et261.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c048ee98d86d7bbb9db67fa8302d34c36214c4f

Postscript

To cap things off, I would just like to illuminate some key takeaways. As a filmmaker myself, this has been an extremely helpful exercise in understanding other artists process and ideas.
Steeped in the history of the medium…
It’s clear that The Weeknd is not your typical “I’m influenced by cinema” artist but an extremely legit film buff with serious credentials. The Weeknd’s film taste leans towards 70s-00s genre works, mostly horror, drama and thriller, and is well versed in the classics but also has the nose to sniff out deeper cuts and obscurities. The mantra of “good artists borrow, great artists steal” works even better if not many people know where you’re stealing from! What is impressive to me is that he is not just versed in “mainstream” obscurities, but also serious deep cuts. Films like Possession and Phantom of the Paradise may not stick out to the average person on the street but are well known in most film circles. Films like Inland Empire and New Rose Hotel (Der Fan was especially impressive to me, it is one of my favorite films) however are not as well known and it is very impressive to me that he can come across films like that, and really get enough out of it to bring into his own work.
…is able to interpolate contemporary/mainstream films…
This perhaps is one of the most impressive aspects of his integration of film into The Weeknd’s work. It is very easy for film buffs to get lost within their own obscure taste, living in a world where everyone is an idiot for not knowing who Shinya Tsukamoto. Trilogy and Kiss Land had a lot of contemporary obscurities, like Stalker, David Lynch etc., well known but they still existed as artifacts, not of the time we live in. However, perhaps picking something from his work on Fifty Shades of Grey, of late he has kept his finger on the zeitgeist and anticipated/integrated what the filmmakers of today are doing, such as his work on Black Panther and Game of Thrones, general appreciation of Tarantino, the works of Nicolas Winding Refn in Starboy, and his use of the Joker and Uncut Gems on After Hours, both of which came out just a few months before the album. It feels Jackson-esque, and I believe this is one thing that will help him further in his quest for pop stardom.
…while also being fully in tune to the works of modern transgressive auteurs…
In addition to keeping up with the mainstream is in touch with, The Weeknd also makes it a point to seek out and learn from the cutting edge filmmakers of today. While the Safdies were always going to blow up, I don’t doubt that a Weeknd co-sign accelerated their rise. Gaspar Noe is one thing, Enter the Void and Irreversible exist as masterpieces of the mainstream obscurities I’ve been mentioning, but he really truly tries to understand the heart of Noe’s work, even going so far back as to understand Noe’s influences (I sincerely hope he is tuned in to the work of Koji Wakamatsu). But most of all, to be a fan of Claire Denis is one thing, but to seek her out and make her an offer that she ACCEPTED is absolutely astounding to me. Just spitballing but it would be like if Michael Jackson shot a music video with Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who I’d bet good money that The Weeknd was put on to by Noe). We can only PRAY that one day we will be blessed with a David Lynch Weeknd video.
---------------------------
…and that just about does it. Hope you enjoyed this and thanks for being patient with me. I got quite busy after the first two and had my own projects/work going that kept me occupied. As we’re still technically in the After Hours era, I also wanted to wait until a few more videos and interviews came out to aid me in my research.
I also wanted to find enough time to make the Letterboxd for this. I personally don’t love Letterboxd culture, I find the popular culture surrounding the site a bit snobbish and exclusive, but I’ve gotten a number of requests for one and you gotta give the people what they want. Throughout the list are a few films that he hasn’t mentioned but are some of my personal favorites and I believe Weeknd fans will like, I encourage you to accidentally stumble upon things on it. Don't overthink, just pick something and watch!
If you’d like to follow me further, you can find me on Instagram here, where I post about film reviews Letterboxd style. I prefer Instagram so that more average people see it instead of an echo chamber of film snobs. I am also a filmmaker myself, I just recently wrapped this short film and am currently in the process of putting together my next project.
The main reason I did this however, besides a general appreciation of The Weeknd’s work, was to put more people on to the beautiful art form that is cinema. One thing I learned from Scorsese is that one must be an advocate and truly champion your medium. I hope that this encourages to check out more interesting movies than they wouldn’t normally come across, and I hope this will inspire more people to create more as well, whether it be to write, make films, music, anything. If even one person picks up a pencil, a camera or a keyboard because of these posts, I will be satisfied.
Thanks all!

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 1995 Winners

If Black Mass had been directed by Martin Scorsese, do you think it would've been a better film?

'The Irishman' Review Thread

Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (8.97 in average rating) with 41 reviews

Critics consensus: An epic gangster drama that earns its extended runtime, The Irishman finds Martin Scorsese revisiting familiar themes to poignant, funny, and profound effect.

Metacritic: 92/100 (23 critics) "must-see"
As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie.

De Niro’s always at his best in the context of a Scorsese-mandated tough-guy routine, and Frank Sheeran gives the actor his most satisfying lead role in years. Sheeran appears in virtually every scene, and the story belongs to his colorful worldview the entire time. He may be an aging man telling tall tales, but that puts him in the same category as the one behind the camera. Sheeran, however, lost touch with his world long before he left it. With “The Irishman,” Scorsese proves he’s more alive than ever.

-Eric Kohn, IndieWire: A

Despite the movie's many pleasures and Scorsese's redoubtable directorial finesse, the excessive length ultimately is a weakness. Attempts to build in social context during the Kennedy and Nixon years, at times intercutting news footage from the period, aren't substantial enough to add much in terms of texture. The connections drawn between politics and organized crime feel undernourished, and the movie works best when it remains tightly focused on the three central figures of Frank, Russell and Jimmy. Netflix should be commended for providing one of our most celebrated filmmakers the opportunity to revisit narrative turf adjacent to some of his best movies. But the feeling remains that the material would have been better served by losing an hour or more to run at standard feature length, or bulking up on supporting-character and plot detail to flesh out a series.

-David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” is a coldly enthralling, long-form knockout — a majestic Mob epic with ice in its veins. It’s the film that, I think, a lot us wanted to see from Scorsese: a stately, ominous, suck-in-your-breath summing up, not just a drama but a reckoning, a vision of the criminal underworld that’s rippling with echoes of the director’s previous Mob films, but that also takes us someplace bold and new.

-Owen Gleiberman, Variety

And the big ticket world premiere at this festival is its opening-night film, The Irishman, a nearly three-and-a-half-hour gangster epic from New York’s own hero, Martin Scorsese. The Irishman is less literal about its meta moodiness than Pain & Glory is, but it still speaks disarmingly quiet volumes about what the autumn of life might mean for its creator.

-Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

For much of its duration, The Irishman covers familiar ground but is slickly entertaining, if a little repetitive in the third hour. There’s an almost meta-maturity, as if Scorsese is also looking back on his own career, the film leaving us with a haunting reminder not to glamorise violent men and the wreckage they leave behind.

-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 4/5

Ultimately, “The Irishman” is a major success for Scorsese—not only does it incorporate the best aspects of his past crime dramas and their thrilling energy, but it adds context to those films and wrestles with their legacy resonantly. In a way, “The Irishman” fills in the gaps between “Goodfellas” and “Casino” to tell the overall story of the mob’s rise and fall in postwar America, but it does so while anchored to one man’s story and morality. The law never catches up to Sheeran—not for the real damning stuff anyway— but as Scorsese demonstrates with profound solemnity, he cannot outrun his conscience.

-Joe Blessing, The Playlist: A

Nothing this misshapen ever flies—Scorsese once managed to make a movie called The Aviator that was similarly overburdened—yet his all-over-the-place enthusiasm plays nicely against the material’s death stench. Tidy as it may be to expect, Scorsese doesn’t need to cap his career with a sign-off to the gangster epic; that would be way too sentimental for him. What The Irishman does become, in its final hour, is something better, a film about broken trust, to family and God. De Niro’s Sheeran, like the monks of Scorsese’s magnificent Silence, wrecked by spiritual compromise, can't express his pain. This may not be why the average fan comes to a Marty movie, but it’s the statement this director, now 76, feels like making. After so much brilliance, Scorsese is being too hard on himself (maybe this review is too), but when The Irishman is about doubt, it’s as personal as it gets.

-Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: 4/5

People will want to see The Irishman because of De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino all in a mob movie again, directed by Martin Scorsese. And, boy, yes, that’s there. In the scenes where they are younger, the de-aging is … pretty good. I’d say the best I’ve seen so far. But it’s one of those things that if you stare at it, yes, you can see the imperfections – especially when De Niro or Pesci are acting alongside, say, a non-de-aged Ray Romano. But you do get used to it. And the way I look at this is, well, this is the small price to pay to get all these actors together again to tell this story. To star in Martin Scorsese’s phenomenal film about the price we all pay for our sins of youth … even if you or I didn’t kill Jimmy Hoffa. The Irishman is terrific and Netflix got their money’s worth.

-Mike Ryan, Uproxx

As much as they take special care to tell the audience that their characters are rotten to the core, Goodfellas and Casino and another spiritual relative, The Wolf Of Wall Street, have been misunderstood as glorifications; it’s an inevitable consequence, perhaps, of following ugly men with occasionally glamorous lives. Scorsese takes no such chances with The Irishman, a crime epic that pushes further forward in time than most, to a truly ignoble end. Eventually, it reminds us, we’re all just fitting ourselves for coffins.

-A. A. Dowd, Uproxx: A-

The film – at three hours and 19 minutes – never flags. The Irishman may not be as groundbreaking as Mean Streets or Taxi Driver, but then again, what is?

-Caryn James, BBC: 4/5

Scorsese is so adept at storytelling, and his cast is so unbelievable, that the film, which clocks in at 209 minutes — even longer than The Return of the King and Avengers: Endgame — barely feels its length. The Irishman feels more like being caught in a dream or reminiscence, with all the tenderness we’re willing to afford in those in-between hours. Only Scorsese and his assembled cast, not to mention longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, could bring that all into reality.

-Karen Han, Polygon

Some may balk at the 209-minute runtime, but there’s never a moment where this story drags. Indeed, the three-plus hours practically fly by, because we’re so swept up in this decades-long journey. There’s not a single second wasted here, because one gets the sense that all the characters are hanging on for dear life – literally. As the years tick on, and their bodies fail them, The Irishman‘s main players find themselves closer and closer to oblivion.

-Chris Evangelista, /FILM: 10/10

Five decades is a lot of history to hold together, and it could have easily crumbled. Remember “Gotti”? But Scorsese is at the top of his game here. His film is never boring, and it explores some unexpectedly deep themes for mafiosos.

-Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post: 4/4

With The Irishman, director Martin Scorsese proves to be in an alluringly funereal mood.

-Keith Uhlich, Slant: 3.5/4

There is no arguing that The Irishman is a masterpiece. It is Scorsese revisiting themes seen in his past work with new elements of excitement, despair, and wit. The great performances and incredible filmmaking make this fictionalized tale of Frank Sheeran a story to end the decade, one that has seen many changes within the film industry — and hopefully introducing a new era of Martin Scorsese.

-Shea Vassar, Filmera: 5/5

For the first two and a half hours of its three-and-a-half-hour runtime, The Irishman is clever and entertaining, to the point where you may think that’s all it’s going to be. But its last half-hour is deeply moving in a way that creeps up on you, and it’s then that you see what Scorsese was working toward all along.

-Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

A monument is a complicated thing. This one is big and solid — and also surprisingly, surpassingly delicate.

-A. O. Scott, The New York Times

Scorsese is probably the last big-budget filmmaker who mostly declines to tell the audience what to think, much less boldface and underline why he’s telling us a story about self-serving criminals and whether he personally condemns them. “The Irishman” doesn’t break with that tradition. The opportunity to sit with the movie later is the main reason to see it. For all its borderline-vaudevillian verbal humor and occasional eruptions of ultraviolence (often done in a single take, and shot from far away) it feels like as much of a collection of thought prompts and images of contemplation as Scorsese’s somber religious epics “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Kundun” and “Silence.” God is as tight-lipped as Frank.

-Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com: 3.5/4
DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese
WRITER
Steven Zaillian
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Rodrigo Prieto
EDITOR
Thelma Schoonmaker
Release date:
November 1, 2019 (limited theatrical release)
November 27, 2019 (Netflix)
Budget:
$159,000,000
STARRING

Robert De Niro as Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran
Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa
Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino
Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno
Bobby Cannavale as Felix "Skinny Razor" DiTullio
Anna Paquin as Peggy Sheeran
Stephen Graham as Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano
Ray Romano as Bill Bufalino

Turner Classic Movies (U.S.) Schedule For The Month Of September, 2020 (All Airtimes E.S.T)

Tuesday, September 01, 2020
(1:15 AM) (drama) L'Eclisse (1962/126 m/Michelangelo Antonioni)
(3:30 AM) (western) Lost Command (1966/129 m/Mark Robson)
(6:00 AM) (suspense) The 39 Steps (1935/87 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(7:45 AM) (suspense) The Lady Vanishes (1938/96 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(9:30 AM) (suspense) Foreign Correspondent (1940/121 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(11:45 AM) (suspence) Suspicion (1941/99 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(1:27 PM) (short) Men In Fright (1938/11 m/George Sidney)
(1:45 PM) (suspense) Stage Fright (1950/110 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(3:45 PM) (suspense) Dial ‘M’ For Murder (1954/105 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(5:32 PM) (short) Third Dimensional Murder (1941/7 m/George Sidney)
(5:45 PM) (suspense) The Wrong Man (1956/105 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(7:34 PM) (short) Wrong Way Butch (1950/10 m/David Barclay)
(8:00 PM) (premiere) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 1) (2019/60 m/Mark Cousins)
(10:45 PM) (documentary) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 1) (2019/60 m/Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, September 02, 2020
(12:00 AM) (premiere) Olivia (1951/96 m/
(1:45 AM) (premiere) Sleepwalking Land (2008/96 m/Teresa Prata)
(3:30 AM) (premiere) Seven Beauties (1975/117 m/Lina Wertmuller)
(5:30 AM) (premiere) Je tu il Elle (1975/86 m/Chantal Akerman)
(6:57 AM) (short) Over The Counter (1932/18 m/Jack Cummings)
(7:15 AM) (premiere) Madchen In Uniform (1931/89 m/Leontine Sagan)
(9:00 AM) (comedy) La Cienaga (2001/101 m/Lucrecia Martel)
(11:00 AM) (musical) Yolanda and the Thief (1945/108 m/Vincente Minnelli)
(1:00 PM) (musical) Call of the Flesh (1930/100 m/Charles Brabin)
(2:45 PM) (musical) Fiesta (1947/102 m/Richard Thorpe)
(4:30 PM) (musical) Pan-Americana (1945/84 m/John H. Auer)
(6:00 PM) (romance) Latin Lovers (1953/104 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(8:00 PM) (musical) Sweet Charity (1969/148 m/Bob Fosse)
(10:45) (drama) All That Jazz (1979)
Thursday, September 03, 2020
(1:00 AM) (musical) Cabaret (1972/124 m/Bob Fosse)
(3:15 AM) (premiere) Star ‘80 (1983/103 m/Bob Fosse)
(5:15 AM) (documentary) A Well Spent Life (1971/44 m/Les Blank)
(6:00 AM) (suspense) The Window (1949/73 m/Ted Tetzlaff)
(7:15 AM) (comedy) Having Wonderful Time (1938/70 m/Alfred Santell)
(9:30 AM) (drama) Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975/107 m/Peter Weir)
(10:30 AM) (adventure) Corvette Summer (1978/105 m/Matthew Robbins)
(12:15 PM) (romance) A Stolen Life (1946/107 m/Curtis Bernhardt)
(2:15 PM) (drama) The Southerner (1945/93 m/Jean Renoir)
(4:00 PM) (comedy) The Seven Year Itch (1955/104 m/Billy Wilder)
(5:49 PM) (short) Mackinac Island (1944/9 m/James A. FitzPatrick)
(6:00 PM) (romance) Summer of ‘42 (1971/104 m/Robert Mulligan)
(9:00 PM) (drama) The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936/86 m/William Dieterle)
(9:45 PM) (drama) The Story of Dr. Jenner (1939/10 m/Henry K. Dunn)
(10:00 PM) (drama) Sister Kenny (1946/116 m/Dudley Nichols)
Friday, September 04, 2020
(12:01 AM) (short) See Your Doctor (1939/8 m/Basil Wrangell)
(12:15 AM) (drama) Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940/103 m/William Dieterle)
(2:15 AM) (drama) Arrowsmith (1931/99 m/John Ford)
(4:15 AM) (adventure) Yellow Jack (1938/83 m/George B. Seitz)
(5:47 AM) (short) Her Honor, The Nurse (1956/8 m/Harry W. Smith)
(6:00 AM) (drama) Madame Curie (1943/124 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(9:15 AM) (documentary) Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972/51 m/Mark Woods)
(9:30 AM) (comedy) Some Like It Hot (1959/122 m/Billy Wilder)
(11:45 AM) (comedy) The Apartment (1960/125 m/Billy Wilder)
(2:00 PM) (comedy) The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1974/98 m/Melvin Frank)
(4:00 PM) (comedy) The Sunshine Boys (1975/111 m/Herbert Ross)
(6:00 PM) (comedy) The Goodbye Girl (1977/111 m/Herbert Ross)
(8:00 PM) (premiere) The T.A.M.I. Show (1964/113 m/Steve Binder)
(10:15 PM) (documentary) Let The Good Times Roll (1973/99 m/Sidney Levin)
Saturday, September 05, 2020
(12:00 AM) (documentary) Elvis: That’s The Way It Is (1970/95 m/Denis Sanders)
(1:45 AM) (documentary) Divine Madness (1980/94 m/Michael Ritchie)
(3:30 AM) (documentary) ABBA: The Movie (1977/97 m/Lasse Hallstrom)
(5:30 AM) (documentary) MGM Parade Show #4 (1955/26 m/?)
(6:00 AM) (crime) The Biggest Bundle Of Them All (1968/108 m/Ken Annakin)
(9:00 AM) (premiere) MGM CARTOONS: The Chump Champ (1950/7 m/Fred [Tex] Avery)
(9:09 AM) (documentary) Game Warden (1955/8 m/Harry W. Smith)
(9:18 AM) (short) Seattle: Gateway To The Northwest (1940/9 m/?)
(9:28 AM) (drama) Isle Of Fury (1936/60 m/Frank McDonald)
(9:30 AM) (serial) TERRY AND THE PIRATES: The Fatal Mistake (1940/17 m/?)
(10:00 AM) (premiere) POPEYE: Fleets of Stren'th (1942/7 m/Dave Fleischer)
(10:08 AM) (adventure) Elephant Stampede (1951/71 m/Ford Beebe)
(11:30 AM) (short) Frontier Days (1945/17 m/Jack Scholl)
(12:00 PM) (suspense) The Prize (1963/135 m/Mark Robson)
(2:30 PM) (western) Stagecoach (1939/96 m/John Ford)
(4:15 PM) (drama) East Of Eden (1955/118 m/Elia Kazan)
(6:30 PM) (comedy) Bananas (1971/82 m/Woody Allen)
(8:00 PM) (documentary) The Kids Are Alright (1979/109 m/Jeff Stein)
(10:00 PM) (premiere) Shine A Light (2008/122 m/Martin Scorsese)
Sunday, September 06, 2020
(12:15 AM) (documentary) The Decline of Western Civilization (1981/100 m/Penelope Spheeris)
(2:15 AM) (documentary) The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years (1988/93 m/Penelope Spheeris)
(4:00 AM) (documentary) This Is Elvis (1981/102 m/Malcolm Leo)
(6:00 AM) (musical) On An Island With You (1948/108 m/Richard Thorpe)
(9:00 AM) (musical) Easy To Love (1953/96 m/Charles Walters)
(10:00 AM) (crime) Night Editor (1946/67 m/Henry Levin)
(12:00 PM) (romance) The Enchanted Cottage (1945/92 m/John Cromwell)
(1:45 PM) (drama) The V.I.P.s (1963/119 m/Anthony Asquith)
(4:00 PM) (romance) Crossing Delancey (1988/97 m/Joan Micklin Silver)
(6:00 PM) (romance) To Have and Have Not (1944/100 m/Howard Hawks)
(8:00 PM) (documentary) The Song Remains The Same (1976/138 m/Peter Clifton)
(10:30 PM) (documentary) Jimi Hendrix (1973/102 m/Joe Boyd)
Monday, September 07, 2020
(12:15 AM) (premiere) Jimi Plays Monterey (1986/49 m/D.A. Pennebaker)
(1:15 AM) (premiere) Shake!: Otis At Monterey (1987/19 m/D.A. Pennebaker)
(1:45 AM) (premiere) Fade To Black (2004/110 m/Patrick Paulson)
(5:30 AM) (premiere) Say Amen, Somebody: The Good News Musical (1982/101 m/George T. Nierenberg)
(7:15 AM) (premiere) A Poem Is A Naked Person (1977/90 m/Les Blank)
(9:00 AM) (premiere) Louie Bluie (1985/61 m/Terry Zwigoff)
(12:15 PM) (premiere) Big Time (1988/87 m/Chris Blum)
(2:00 PM) (documentary) Don’t Look Back (1967/96 m/D.A. Pennebaker)
(4:00 PM) (premiere) Neil Young: Heart Of Gold (2006/104 m/Jonathan Demme)
(6:00 PM) (premiere) Festival (1967/98 m/Murray Lerner)
(8:00 PM) (documentary) Monterey Pop (1969/79/D.A. Pennebaker)
(9:30 PM) (documentary) Woodstock: The Director’s Cut (1970/224 m/Michael Wadleigh)
Tuesday, September 08, 2020
(1:30 AM) (musical) A Hard Day’s Night (1964/87 m/Richard Lester)
(3:15 AM) (documentary) Go Go Mania (1965/70 m/Frederic Goode)
(4:45 AM) (documentary) Robert Osborne’s 20th Anniversary Tribute (2015/47 m/?)
(6:00 AM) (crime) Armored Car Robbery (1950/68 m/Richard Fleischer)
(7:30 AM) (crime) The Asphalt Jungle (1950/112 m/John Huston)
(9:30 AM) (crime) High Sierra (1941/100 m/Raoul Walsh)
(11:15 AM) (crime) Rififi (1954/118 m/Jules Dassin)
(1:30 PM) (crime) The League Of Gentlemen (1960/114 m/Basil Dearden)
(3:45 PM) (comedy) Ocean’s 11 (1960/127 m/Lewis Milestone)
(6:00 PM) (suspense) Jack of Diamonds (1967/108 m/Don Taylor)
(8:00 PM) (premiere) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 2) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
(9:15 PM) (premiere) El Camino (1963/95 m/Ana Mariscal)
(11:15 PM) (documentary) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode #2) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
(12:30 AM) (premiere) Lovely & Amazing (2001/91 m/Nicole Holofcener)
(2:15 AM) (premiere) Wanda (1970/103 m/Barbara Loden)
(4:15 AM) (premiere) The Watermelon Woman (1995/85 m/Cheryl Dunye)
(6:00 AM) (premiere) In The Empty City (2004/90 m/Maria Jopo Ganga)
(7:45 AM) (silent) The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926/66 m/Lotte Reiniger)
(9:15 AM) (premiere) Entre Nous (1983/111 m/Diane Kurys)
(11:30 AM) (drama) Jeopardy (1953/69 m/John Sturges)
(1:00 PM) (suspense) Cry Terror! (1958/96 m/Andrew L. Stone)
(3:15 PM) (drama) The Devil Makes Three (1952/90 m/Andrew Marton)
(5:00 PM) (suspense) Dial 1119 (1950/75 m/Gerald Mayer)
(6:30 PM) (suspense) Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956/80 m/Fritz Lang)
(8:00 PM) (comedy) Mr. Belvedere Goes To College (1949/83 m/Elliott Nugent)
(11:30 PM) (premiere) Blondie Goes To College (1942/77 m/Frank R. Strayer)
Thursday, September 10, 2020
(1:00 AM) (musical) She's Working Her Way Through College (1952/101 m/Bruce Humberstone)
(3:00 AM) Start Cheering (1938/78 m/Albert S. Rogell)
(4:30 AM) Strictly Dynamite (1934/71 m/Elliott Nugent)
(6:00 AM) (drama) Mademoiselle Fifi (1944/69 m/Robert Wise)
(7:15 AM) (suspense) The Curse of the Cat People (1944/70 m/Gunther V. Fritsch and Robert Wise)
(8:30 AM) (horror) The Body Snatcher (1945/78 m/Robert Wise)
(10:00 AM) (suspense) Mystery In Mexico (1948/66 m/Robert Wise)
(11:15 AM) (western) Blood On the Moon (1948/?/Robert Wise)
(1:00 PM) (crime) Born To Kill (1947/92 m/Robert Wise)
(2:45 PM) (drama) The Set-Up (1949/72 m/Robert Wise)
(4:15 PM) (romance) So Big (1953/102 m/Robert Wise)
(6:00 PM) (drama) Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956/113 m/Robert Wise)
(9:00 PM) (war) So Proudly We Hail (1943/126 m/Mark Sandrich)
(10:15 PM) (comedy) MAS*H (1970/116 m/Robert Altman)
Friday, September 11, 2020
(12:30 AM) (war) The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944/136 m/Cecil B. DeMille)
(3:00 AM) (war) Cry ‘Havoc’ (1944/97 m/Richard Thorpe)
(4:45 AM) (war) Battle Circus (1953/90 m/Richard Brooks)
(6:30 AM) (short) Angel Of Mercy (1939/10 m/Edward L. Cahn)
(6:45 AM) (drama) The White Angel (1936/92 m/William Dieterle)
(9:30 AM) (comedy) Bud Abbott and Lou Costello In Hollywood (1945/83 m/S. Sylvan Simon)
(10:00 AM) (comedy) Merton of the Movies (1947/82 m/Robert Alton)
(11:30 AM) (musical) Show Girl in Hollywood (1930/78 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(1:00 PM) (comedy) Goldie Gets Along (1933/68 m/Malcolm St. Clair)
(2:15 PM) (musical) Talent Scout (1937/62 m/William Clemens)
(3:30 PM) (comedy) Pick A Star (1937/70 m/Edward Sedgwick)
(4:45 PM) (comedy) Boy Meets Girl (1938/86 m/Lloyd Bacon)
(6:15 PM) (comedy) Movie Crazy (1932/96 m/Clyde Bruckman)
(8:00 PM) (adventure) She (1965/106 m/Robert Day)
(10:00 PM) (adventure) Clash of the Titans (1981/118 m/Desmond Davis)
Saturday, September 12, 2020
(12:15 AM) (comedy) Casino Royale (1967/131 m/John Huston, et. al.)
(2:45 AM) (horror) Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959/78 m/Edward D. Wood, Jr.)
(4:15 AM) (drama) Reefer Madness (1936/66 m/Louis Gasnier)
(5:15 AM) (premiere) Sex Madness (1938/52 m/?
(6:15 AM) (comedy) A Slight Case Of Murder (1938/85 m/Lloyd Bacon)
(9:00 AM) (premiere) MGM CARTOONS: Droopy’s Double Trouble (1951/7 m/Fred [Tex] Avery)
(9:09 AM) (short) High Dive Kids (1956/8 m/?)
(9:18 AM) (short) Sitka and Juneau: A Tale of Two Cities (1940/9 m/?)
(9:28 AM) (drama) Daredevil Drivers (1938/60 m/B. Reeves Eason)
(9:30 AM) (serial) TERRY AND THE PIRATES: Pyre of Death (1940/17 m/?)
(10:00 AM) (premiere) POPEYE: Pip-Eye, Pup-Eye, Poop-Eye An' Peep-Eye (1942/6 m/Dave Fleischer)
(10:08 AM) (adventure) The Lion Hunters (1951/80 m/Ford Beebe)
(11:30 AM) (short) The Rear Gunner (1943/20 m/Ray Enright)
(12:00 PM) (crime) Double Indemnity (1944/108 m/Billy Wilder)
(2:00 PM) (drama) Birdman of Alcatraz (1962/149 m/John Frankenheimer)
(4:45 PM) (war) The Sand Pebbles (1966/179 m/Robert Wise)
(8:00 PM) (suspense) Out of the Past (1947/97 m/Jacques Tourneur)
(10:00 PM) (drama) Experiment Perilous (1944/91 m/Jacques Tourneur)
Sunday, September 13, 2020
(12:00 AM) (suspense) Danger Signal (1945/78 m/Robert Florey)
(1:30 AM) (drama) The China Syndrome (1979/122 m/James Bridges)
(3:45 AM) (horror) Coma (1978/113 m/Michael Crichton)
(6:00 AM) (comedy) See Here, Private Hargrove (1944/101 m/Wesley Ruggles)
(9:00 AM) (musical) Summer Stock (1950/109 m/Charles Walters)
(10:00 AM) (suspense) Danger Signal (1945/78 m/Robert Florey)
(11:30 AM) (comedy) The Whole Town’s Talking (1935/93 m/John Ford)
(1:15 PM) (drama) The Last Hurrah (1958/121 m/John Ford)
(3:30 PM) (drama) Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962/120 m/Richard Brooks)
(5:45 PM) (adventure) The Black Stallion (1979/117 m/Carroll Ballard)
(8:00 PM) (musical) Carmen Jones (1954/105 m/Otto Preminger)
(10:00 PM) (drama) Bright Road (1953/68 m/Gerald Mayer)
(11:30 PM) (musical) Sun Valley Serenade (1941/86 m/H. Bruce Humberstone)
Monday, September 14, 2020
(1:15 AM) (silent) The Ace of Hearts (1921/74 m/Wallace Worsley)
(6:00 AM) (musical) Playing Around (1930/66 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(7:15 AM) (drama) Union Depot (1932/67 m/Alfred E. Green)
(9:30 AM) (drama) When In Rome (1952/78 m/Clarence Brown)
(10:00 AM) (drama) The Toast Of New York (1937/109 m/Rowland V. Lee)
(12:00 PM) (musical) Fashions of 1934 (1934/78 m/William Dieterle)
(1:30 PM) (suspense) Kind Lady (1935/76 m/George B. Seitz)
(3:00 PM) (romance) Sylvia Scarlett (1935/95 m/George Cukor)
(4:45 PM) (romance) Nobody Lives Forever (1946/100 m/Jean Negulesco)
(6:30 PM) (suspense) Cast a Dark Shadow (1955/83 m/Lewis Gilbert)
(8:00 PM) (short) Star Night At the Cocoanut Grove (1934/20 m/Louis Lewyn)
(8:00 PM) (short) A Night At The Movies (1937/10 m/Roy Rowland)
(8:00 PM) (comedy) The Pip From Pittsburg (1931/21 m/James Parrott)
(8:00 PM) (short) Movie Pests (1944/10 m/Will Jason)
(8:00 PM) (short) So You Want To Be A Detective (1948/11 m/Richard Bare)
(8:00 PM) (short) Los Angeles “Wonder City of the West” (1935/8 m/?)
(8:00 PM) (short) The Man In The Barn (1937/11 m/Jacques Tourneur)
(8:00 PM) (short) Smash Your Baggage (1932/9 m/Roy Mack)
(10:00 PM) (short) Asleep In The Feet (1933/19 m/Gus Meins)
(10:00 PM) (comedy) Top Flat (1935/19 m/William Terhune)
(10:00 PM) (short) The Bargain of the Century (1933/19 m/Charley Chase)
(11:15 PM) (short) You’re Telling Me (1932/19 m/Lloyd French)
(11:15 PM) (short) Call A Cop! (1931/20 m/George Stevens)
(11:15 PM) (short) Too Many Women (1932/19 m/Lloyd French)
(11:15 PM) (short) Air-Tight (1931/17 m/George Stevens)
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
(12:45 AM) (comedy) Buzzin’ Around (1933/20 m/Alfred J. Goulding)
(12:45 AM) (short) Whispering Whoopee (1930/21 m/James W. Horne)
(2:00 AM) (short) Women In Hiding (1940/22 m/Joseph Newman)
(2:00 AM) (short) Drunk Driving (1939/21 m/David Miller)
(2:00 AM) (short) The Public Pays (1936/18 m/Errol Taggart)
(3:15 AM) (short) His Silent Racket (1933/18 m/Charley Chase
(3:15 AM) (short) Girl Shock (1930/20 m/James W. Horne)
(3:15 AM) (short) Fallen Arches (1933/19 m/Gus Meins)
(3:15 AM) (short) The Chases of Pimple Street (1934/20 m/Charles Parrott)
(3:15 AM) (short) Four Parts (1934/18 m/Eddie Dunn)
(5:00 AM) (short) So You Want To Play The Piano (1956/10 m/Richard Bare)
(5:00 AM) (short) Apples To You! (1934/20 m/Leigh Jason)
(5:00 AM) (short) Zion: Canyon of Colour (1934/8 m/?)
(5:00 AM) (short) How To Sleep (1935/11 m/Nick Grindé)
(5:00 AM) (short) Double Talk (1937/11 m/Lloyd French)
(5:00 AM) (western) Pony Express Days (1940/20 m/B. Reeves Eason)
(5:00 AM) (comedy) Important Business (1944/11 m/Will Jason)
(5:00 AM) (short) The Black Network (1936/21 m/Roy Mack)
(5:00 AM) (short) And She Learned About Dames (1934/?/?)
(5:00 AM) (short) The Fabulous Fraud (1948/11 m/Edward L. Cahn)
(7:15 AM) (suspense) Man Hunt (1933/64 m/Irving Cummings)
(8:30 AM) (suspense) Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939/59 m/Jac ques Tourneur)
(9:45 AM) (suspense) Phantom Raiders (1940/70 m/Jacques Tourneur)
(11:00 AM) (suspense) Sky Murder (1940/72 m/George B. Seitz)
(12:15 PM) (suspense) Star Of Midnight (1935/90 m/Stephen Roberts)
(2:00 PM) (suspense) Miracles For Sale (1939/71 m/Tod Browning)
(3:15 PM) (suspense) Eyes In The Night (1942/80 m/Fred Zinnemann)
(4:45 PM) (suspense) The Hidden Eye (1945/69 m/Richard Whorf)
(6:00 PM) (suspense) Stage Fright (1950/110 m/Alfred Hitchcock)
(9:00 PM) (premiere) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 3) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
(9:15 PM) (documentary) Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976/105 m/Barbara Kopple)
(11:15 PM) (documentary) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 3) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
(12:30 AM) (drama) The Virgin Suicides (1999/97 m/Sofia Coppola)
(2:30 AM) (premiere) Loving Couples (1964/113 m/Mai Zetterling)
(6:30 AM) (premiere) 10 to 11 (2009/110 m/Pelin Esmer)
(9:30 AM) (comedy) Losing Ground (1982/86 m/Kathleen Collins)
(10:00 AM) (premiere) Strangers In Good Company (1990/101 m/Cynthia Scott)
(12:00 PM) (short) Wagon Wheels West (1943/17 m/B. Reeves Eason)
(12:30 PM) (western) Westward The Women (1951/116 m/William A. Wellman)
(2:45 PM) (western) Strange Lady In Town (1955/112 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(4:45 PM) (western) Rachel and the Stranger (1948/93 m/Norman Foster)
(6:15 PM) (western) Cat Ballou (1965/96 m/Elliot Silverstein)
(8:00 PM) (musical) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949/107 m/Tay Garnett)
(10:00 PM) (premiere) Peggy Sue Got Married (1986/103 m/Francis Ford Coppola)
Thursday, September 17, 2020
(12:00 AM) (premiere) Repeat Performance (1947/93 m/Alfred Werker)
(1:45 AM) (drama) Turn Back the Clock (1933/79 m/Edgar Selwyn)
(3:15 AM) (adventure) The Boy and the Pirates (1960/84 m/Bert I. Gordon)
(5:00 AM) (romance) Berkeley Square (1933/88 m/Frank Lloyd)
(6:45 AM) (short) MGM Is On The Move! (1964/36 m/?)
(7:45 AM) (crime) Angel Face (1953/91 m/Otto Preminger)
(9:30 AM) (western) River of No Return (1954/91 m/Otto Preminger)
(11:15 AM) (suspense) Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965/107 m/Otto Preminger)
(1:15 PM) (drama) The Man with the Golden Arm (1956/119 m/Otto Preminger)
(3:30 PM) (drama) Anatomy Of A Murder (1959/161 m/Otto Preminger)
(6:15 PM) (suspense) Laura (1944/88 m/Otto Preminger)
(8:00 PM) (comedy) People Will Talk (1951/110 m/Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
(10:00 PM) (drama) Magnificent Obsession (1954/108 m/Douglas Sirk)
Friday, September 18, 2020
(12:00 AM) (drama) A Man to Remember (1938/78 m/Garson Kanin)
(1:30 AM) (drama) The Citadel (1938/113 m/King Vidor)
(3:30 AM) (drama) Red Beard (1965/185 m/Akira Kurosawa)
(6:45 AM) (drama) The Doctor and the Girl (1949/98 m/Curtis Bernhardt)
(9:30 AM) (romance) Dark Victory (1939/104 m/Edmund Goulding)
(10:30 AM) (romance) The Painted Veil (1934/84 m/Richard Boleslawski)
(12:00 PM) (romance) Conquest (1937/112 m/Clarence Brown)
(2:00 PM) (romance) Camille (1937/109 m/George Cukor)
(4:00 PM) (comedy) Ninotchka (1939/110 m/Ernst Lubitsch)
(6:00 PM) Grand Hotel (1932/113 m/Edmund Goulding)
(8:00 PM) (drama) The Rain People (1969/101 m/Francis Ford Coppola)
(10:00 PM) (drama) Harry and Tonto (1974/115 m/Paul Mazursky)
Saturday, September 19, 2020
(12:00 AM) (comedy) Lost In America (1985/91 m/Albert Brooks)
(2:00 AM) (premiere) Wild At Heart (1990/124 m/David Lynch)
(4:15 AM) (premiere) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992/135 m/David Lynch)
(6:30 AM) (suspense) Blackmail (1939/81 m/H.C. Potter)
(9:00 AM) (premiere) MGM CARTOONS: The Flea Circus (1954/7 m/Fred [Tex] Avery)
(9:09 AM) (short) Holland Sailing (1956/8 m/?)
(9:18 AM) (short) Alluring Alaska (1941/9 m/?)
(9:27 AM) (western) Guns Of Hate (1948/62 m/Lesley Selander)
(9:30 AM) (serial) TERRY AND THE PIRATES: The Secret of the Temple (1940/17 m/?)
(10:00 AM) (premiere) POPEYE: Olive Oyl and Water Don't Mix (1933/7 m/Dave Fleischer)
(10:08 AM) (adventure) African Treasure (1952/70 m/Ford Beebe)
(11:30 AM) (short) Roaring Guns (1944/19 m/Jean Negulesco)
(12:00 PM) (drama) Going Home (1971/97 m/Herbert B. Leonard)
(1:45 PM) (western) 3:10 To Yuma (1957/92 m/Delmer Daves)
(3:30 PM) (drama) Fail-Safe (1964/112 m/Sidney Lumet)
(5:30 PM) (war) Sergeant York (1941/134 m/Howard Hawks)
(8:00 PM) (musical) Guys and Dolls (1955/149 m/Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
(10:45 PM) (crime) Midnight Alibi (1934/58 m/Alan Crosland)
Sunday, September 20, 2020
(12:00 AM) (suspense) Gilda (1946/110 m/Charles Vidor)
(2:15 AM) (sci-fi) Rollerball (1975/125 m/Norman Jewison)
(4:30 AM) (sci-fi) Countdown (1968/101 m/Robert Altman)
(6:15 AM) (drama) All The King’s Men (1949/110 m/Robert Rossen)
(9:15 AM) (comedy) It Happened One Night (1934/105 m/Frank Capra)
(10:00 AM) (suspense) Gilda (1946/110 m/Charles Vidor)
(12:15 PM) (musical) Going My Way (1944/127 m/Leo McCarey)
(2:30 PM) (musical) Royal Wedding (1951/93 m/Stanley Donen)
(4:15 PM) (musical) Dangerous When Wet (1953/95 m/Charles Walters)
(6:00 PM) (comedy) Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? (1967/108 m/Stanley Kramer)
(8:00 PM) (premiere) Tamango (1959/100 m/John Berry)
(10:00 PM) (adventure) Tarzan’s Peril (1951/79 m/Byron Haskin)
(11:30 PM) (drama) The Harlem Globetrotters (1951/77 m/Phil Brown)
Monday, September 21, 2020
(1:00 AM) (premiere) Where Now Are The Dreams Of Youth? (1932/86 m/Yasujiro Ozu)
(2:45 AM) (premiere) LONE WOLF AND CUB: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973/90 m/Kenji Misumi)
(4:30 AM) (premiere) LONE WOLF AND CUB: White Heaven In Hell (1974/84 m/Yoshiyuki Kuroda)
(6:00 AM) (silent) Flesh and the Devil (1926/112 m/Clarence Brown)
(9:15 AM) (romance) To Have and Have Not (1944/100 m/Howard Hawks)
(10:15 AM) (crime) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946/113 m/Tay Garnett)
(12:30 PM) (romance) Possessed (1931/76 m/Clarence Brown)
(2:00 PM) (comedy) Woman of the Year (1942/114 m/George Stevens)
(4:15 PM) (romance) Swing Shift (1984/100 m/Jonathan Demme)
(6:00 PM) (drama) Stromboli (1950/106 m/Roberto Rossellini)
(8:00 PM) (drama) A Cry In The Dark (1988/121 m/Fred Schepisi)
(10:15 PM) (romance) The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981/124 m/Karel Reisz)
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
(2:30 AM) (drama) Kramer vs. Kramer (1979/105 m/Robert Benton)
(4:30 AM) (drama) Wednesday’s Child (1934/68 m/John Robertson)
(6:00 AM) (documentary) MGM Parade Show #4 (1955/26 m/?)
(6:30 AM) (epic) Around The World In 80 Days (1956/182 m/Michael Anderson)
(9:45 AM) (musical) Bitter Sweet (1940/93 m/W.S. Van Dyke II)
(11:30 AM) (war) In Which We Serve (1942/115 m/Noel Coward)
(1:30 PM) (comedy) Private Lives (1931/84 m/Sidney Franklin)
(3:00 PM) (romance) We Were Dancing (1942/95 m/Robert Z. Leonard)
(4:45 PM) (comedy) Blithe Spirit (1945/96 m/David Lean)
(6:30 PM) (romance) Brief Encounter (1945/87 m/David Lean)
(9:00 PM) (premiere) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 4) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
(9:15 PM) (premiere) The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005/89 m/Byambasuren Davaa)
(11:00 PM) (documentary) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 4) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
(12:15 AM) (crime) Salaam Bombay! (1988/114 m/Mira Nair)
(2:30 AM) (drama) Daughters of the Dust (1991/112 m/Julie Dash)
(4:30 AM) (premiere) Krane’s Confectionary (1951/103 m/Astrid Henning-Jensen)
(6:30 AM) (premiere) Mikey and Nicky (1976/107 m/Elaine May)
(9:45 AM) (premiere) The Juniper Tree (1990/79 m/Nietzchka Keene)
(10:15 AM) (premiere) Women Who Loved Cinema (Part 1 & 2) (2002/114 m/Marianne Khoury)
(12:15 PM) (comedy) Life Begins For Andy Hardy (1941/101 m/George B. Seitz)
2:00 PM) (musical) Girl Crazy (1943/Norman Taurog)
(4:00 PM) (adventure) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939/91 m/Richard Thorpe)
(6:00 PM) (comedy) Ah, Wilderness! (1935/98 m/Clarence Brown)\
(8:00 PM) (drama) Boys Town (1938/93 m/Norman Taurog)
(9:45 PM) (drama) The Human Comedy (1943/117 m/Clarence Brown)
Thursday, September 24, 2020
(12:00 AM) (adventure) The Black Stallion (1979/117 m/Carroll Ballard)
(2:15 AM) (musical) Strike Up The Band (1940/120 m/Busby Berkeley)
(4:30 AM) (crime) Killer McCoy (1947/104 m/Roy Rowland)
(6:15 AM) (romance) Wuthering Heights (1939/104 m/William Wyler)
(9:15 AM) (romance) Kitty Foyle (1940/108 m/Sam Wood)
(10:15 AM) (drama) Cass Timberlane (1947/119 m/George Sidney)
(12:15 PM) (drama) The Bad and the Beautiful (1952/118 m/Vincente Minnelli)
(2:30 PM) (drama) Magnificent Obsession (1954/108 m/Douglas Sirk)
(4:30 PM) (drama) All That Heaven Allows (1955/89 m/Douglas Sirk)
(6:15 PM) Written On The Wind (1957/99 m/Douglas Sirk)
(8:00 PM) (drama) Young Dr. Kildare (1938/82 m/Harold S. Bucquet)
(9:30 PM) (drama) The Young Doctors (1961/103 m/Phil Karlson)
(11:30 PM) (comedy) The Hospital (1971/102 m/Arthur Hiller)
Friday, September 25, 2020
(1:30 AM) (drama) No Way Out (1950/107 m/Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
(3:30 AM) (drama) The Girl In White (1952/93 m/John Sturges)
(5:04 AM) (short) Her Honor, The Nurse (1956/8 m/Harry W. Smith)
(5:30 AM) (drama) Emergency Hospital (1956/63 m/Lee Sholem)
(6:45 AM) (horror) War of the Planets (1965/97 m/Antonio Margheriti)
(9:30 AM) (horror) The Cosmic Monster (1958/72 m/Gilbert Gunn)
(10:00 AM) (horror) Satellite In The Sky (1956/84 m/Paul Dickson)
(11:30 AM) (horror) The Green Slime (1969/90 m/Kinji Fukasaku)
(1:15 PM) (horror) Queen of Outer Space (1958/80 m/Edward Bernds)
(2:45 PM) (horror) The Wild, Wild Planet (1965/94 m/Anthony Dawson)
(4:30 PM) (horror) Village of the Damned (1960/77 m/Wolf Rilla)
(6:00 PM) (horror) Children of the Damned (1964/90 m/Anton M. Leader)
(9:00 PM) (western) The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976/136 m/Clint Eastwood)
(10:30 PM) (western) Alvarez Kelly (1966/110 m/Edward Dmytryk)
Saturday, September 26, 2020
(12:45 AM) (western) Springfield Rifle (1952/93 m/Andre de Toth)
(6:00 AM) (comedy) Larceny, Inc. (1942/95 m/Lloyd Bacon)
(9:00 AM) (premiere) MGM CARTOONS: The First Bad Man (1955/7 m/Fred [Tex] Avery)
(9:09 AM) (short) Salar, The Leaper (1957/8 m/Douglas Sinclair)
(9:18 AM) (documentary) Land of Alaska Nellie (1940/9 m/?)
(9:28 AM) (western) Gun Law (1938/60 m/David Howard)
(9:30 AM) (serial) WILD WEST DAYS: Death Rides The Range (1937/?/?)
(10:00 AM) (premiere) POPEYE: Many Tanks (1933/7 m/Dave Fleischer)
(10:09 AM) (adventure) Bomba and the Jungle Girls (1952/70 m/Ford Beebe)
(11:30 AM) (short) Heavenly Music (1943/22 m/Josef Berne)
(12:00 PM) (drama) The Long Voyage Home (1940/106 m/John Ford)
(2:00 PM) (epic) Quo Vadis (1951/174 m/Mervyn LeRoy)
(5:15 PM) (war) Where Eagles Dare (1968/155 m/Brian G. Hutton)
(8:00 PM) (romance) The Red Shoes (1948/134 m/Michael Powell)
(10:30 PM) (war) Night Ambush (1958/105 m/Michael Powell)
Sunday, September 27, 2020
(12:15 AM) (drama) They Won’t Believe Me (1947/90 m/Irving Pichel)
(2:00 AM) (horror) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954/79 m/Jack Arnold)
(3:30 AM) (horror) UFO (1956/88 m/Winston Jones)
(5:15 AM) (documentary) MGM Parade Show #4 (1955/26 m/?)
(6:00 AM) (romance) Mata Hari (1931/89 m/George Fitzmaurice)
(7:45 AM) (comedy) The Talk Of The Town (1942/117 m/George Stevens)
(10:00 AM) (drama) They Won't Believe Me (1947/90 m/Irving Pichel)
(11:45 AM) (comedy) Don't Make Waves (1967/97 m/Alexander Mackendrick)
(1:30 PM) (drama) Honeysuckle Rose (1980/119 m/Jerry Schatzberg)
(3:45 PM) (romance) Now, Voyager (1942/117 m/Irving Rapper)
(6:00 PM) (drama) Executive Suite (1954/104 m/Robert Wise)
(10:15 PM) (drama) The Decks Ran Red (1958/84 m/Andrew L. Stone)
(12:00 AM) (comedy) Our Modern Maidens (1929/75 m/Jack Conway)
(2:00 AM) (musical) Black Orpheus (1959/108 m/Marcel Camus)
(4:00 AM) (romance) Orpheus (1950/96 m/Jean Cocteau)
Monday, September 28, 2020
(6:00 AM) (comedy) Not So Dumb (1930/76 m/King Vidor)
(7:30 AM) (drama) Street Scene (1931/79 m/King Vidor)
(9:00 AM) (adventure) Bird of Paradise (1932/82 m/King Vidor)
(10:30 AM) (drama) Our Daily Bread (1934/74 m/King Vidor)
(11:45 AM) (western) Northwest Passage (1940/127 m/King Vidor)
(2:00 PM) (drama) H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941/120 m/King Vidor)
(4:15 PM) (drama) The Fountainhead (1949/113 m/King Vidor)
(6:15 PM) (crime) Lightning Strikes Twice (1951/90 m/King Vidor)
(9:00 PM) (comedy) You Can't Take It With You (1938/126 m/Frank Capra)
(10:30 PM) (drama) Ship of Fools (1965/149 m/Stanley Kramer)
(1:15 AM) (premiere) Titicut Follies (1967/84 m/Frederick Wiseman)
(3:00 AM) (drama) The Sign of the Ram (1948/84 m/John Sturges)
(5:00 AM) (documentary) Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli (2010/45 m/Sean Cameron)
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
(6:00 AM) (drama) Blossoms in the Dust (1941/99 m/Mervyn LeRoy)
(9:00 AM) (romance) Mrs. Parkington (1944/124 m/Tay Garnett)
(10:30 AM) (drama) Madame Curie (1943/124 m/Mervyn Le Roy)
(1:00 PM) (romance) The Valley of Decision (1945/118 m/Tay Garnett)
(3:15 PM) (romance) Pride and Prejudice (1940/118 m/Robert Z. Leonard)
(5:30 PM) (war) Mrs. Miniver (1942/134 m/William Wyler)
(8:00 PM) (premiere) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 5) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
(9:15 PM) (drama) Middle of Nowhere (2012/101 m/Ava Duvernay)
(11:15 PM) (documentary) Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (episode 5) (2019/61 m/Mark Cousins)
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
(12:30 AM) (drama) Beau Travail (1999/89 m/Claire Denis)
(6:00 AM) (premiere) Wasp (2003/26 m/Andrea Arnold)
(10:00 AM) (drama) Antonia's Line (1995/103 m/Marleen Gorris)
(12:00 PM) (premiere) The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957/72 m/Bernard Girard)
(1:15 PM) (crime) Ring of Fire (1961/91/Andrew L. Stone)
(2:45 PM) (drama) Untamed Youth (1957/80 m/Howard W. Koch)
(4:15 PM) (musical) Jailhouse Rock (1957/97 m/Richard Thorpe)
(6:00 PM) (drama) Rebel Without A Cause (1955/111 m/Nicholas Ray)
(8:00 PM) (drama) Stand and Deliver (1988/103 m/Ramon Menendez)
(10:00 PM) (drama) The Blackboard Jungle (1955/101 m/Richard Brooks)

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 2006 Winners

Goodfellas turns 30 this year! Here are 40 interesting pieces of fact and trivia about the classic mob movie

You can check out a video version of this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OQkxioCNrw&t=3s
1 The first scene shot in the film was Morrie’s wig commercial, directed by Stephen R Pacca, who owned a window replacement company and directed and ran a similar ad in New York City that Scorsese was inspired by
2 When Jimmy is handing out money to everyone, Robert De Niro, ever the perfectionist, didn’t like how the fake money felt in is hands. He wanted real cash to be used, so the props master gave De Niro $5000 of his own money. No one was permitted to leave the set at the end of each take until the money was returned to the props man and counted.
3 Sticking with De Niro being a sticker for authenticity, according to the real-life Henry Hill, the protagonist of the movie, De Niro would phone him 7 or 8 times a day, wanting to discuss minute details of his character, even ow he would hold his cigarettes.
4 The classic Funny how scene is based on an occurrence which actually happened to Joe Pesci. When he was working in a restaurant years ago, he complimented a gangster by telling him he was funny, but the remark was met with a less than impressed response. Pesci told this to Scorsese, who implemented it into the film, and the scene was directed by Pesci himself and not included in the shooting script of the film, meaning his and Ray Liotta’s interactions would elicit genuine reactions from the supporting cast.
5 Henry Hill said that Joe Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy was 90 to 99% accurate. The only exception was that the real Tommy was a much larger and powerfully built man.
6 Veteran actor Al Pacino, who director Martin Scorsese wanted to work with for years and who he would later work with in The Irishman, was offered the role of Jimmy Conway. Pacino turned it down, for fear of being typecast as a gangster actor. He would go on to regret this decision.
7 Much has been made about real life mob involvement in the making of Goodfellas, from Robert De Niro attempting to contact the real-life Jimmy Burk, to Scorsese hiring background actors with real life mafia connections, such as Tony Sirico, who would later find fame playing Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos. According to Nicholas Pileggi, author of the book Wiseuy upon which Goodfellas is based, there were several mobsters hired as extras in order to add authenticity to the film. They provided the studio with fake social security numbers, and as such it is unknown how they were paid.
8 Ray Liotta’s mother died whilst the movie was being filmed, and Liotta used his emotions over his mother’s death in his performance, most notably in the scene where he pistol whips another man.
9 When Joe Pesci’s mother saw the film, his real life mother, she liked it, but questioned her son if he had to swear so much. 5 years later in Casino Catherine Scorsese, who played Pesci’s mother in Goodfellas, complains to her son in Casino about swearing too much.
10 The painting of the two dogs and the man in the boat that Pesci’s mother in the film paints was actually painted by Nicholas Pileggi
11 The Lufthansa heist, which plays a major part of the movie, did not have its case solved and closed until 2014, and most of the surviving participants were arrested.
12 When Henry Kill is introducing mobsters to us in the bar, one of them is a character named Fat Andy. This character is played by Louis Eppolito, Eppolito was at the time a former NYPD detective whose father, uncle and cousin were in the mob. 15 years after the release of Goodfellas, Eppolito, along with his police partner, were arrested and charged with racketeering, obstruction of justice, extorsion, and up to 8 murders. They were both given life sentences, with an added 80 years each.
13 The F word and its derivatives are used 321 times in the film, at an average of 2.04 per minute, and almost half of them are said by Joe Pesci. At the time it was made, Goodfellas held the record for the most amount of profanity in a single film.
14 The scene where the three main characters eat with Tommy’s mother was almost completely improvised by the cast, including Tommy asking his mother if he could borrow a butcher’s knife and Jimmy’s remark about the animal’s hoof. Scorsese did not tell his mother tat Pesci’s character had just violently beaten a man, only that he was home for dinner and that she was to cook for them.
15 The real life Jimmy, along with Paulie whose death is mentioned in the film, also died in prison in 1996. He would have been eligible for parole in 2004.
16 Paul Sorvino wanted to drop out of the role as Paulie just three days before filming was schedule to start, as he felt he lack the cold personality to play the role correctly. After phoning his agent and asking him to release in from the film, his agent told him to think it over for a while. Later that night, Sorvino was practicing in the mirror and made a face that even frightened himself, and he was convinced that he would be able to play the role.
17 According to film legend, the real life Jimmy Burke was so trilled that Robert De Niro was playing him in the movie, that he phoned up De Niro from prison and gave him advice. This is something denied by Nicolas Pileggi
18 Even though Joe Pesci was in his fourties during the filming of Goodfellas, the real life inspiration for his character was in his 20 when the events of the film took place. Scorsese was initially concerned with Pesci being too old to play the role of Tommy, and Pesci sent him a video of him walking
19 Nicolas Pileggi spoke to Henry Hill throughout the script writing process, and he says much of the voice over narration in the film are almost exact quotes from Liotta himself
20 According to Debi Mazar, Henry Hill’s girlfriend in the film, when she trips after meeting Henry she actually tripped over the camera’s dolly track. Scorsese kept it in the film because it looked like her character was overwhelmed by Henry.
21 One of the daughters of Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco’s characters, the one too shy to give Paulie a kiss when he visits their home, is actually the daughter of Harvey Keitel, with whom Braco had the child.
22 In order to better get into character, when driving to and from the set Ray Liotta would often listen to tapes of interviews Pileggi had with the real Henry Hill. Liotta noted that Hill spoke casually of murders and other serious crimes whilst eating potato chips.
23 After seeing the film, Henry Hill thanked Liotta for not making him look like an asshole. Ray Liotta response was to think to himself “did you even watch the movie?”
24 The famous long take of the Copacabana took just 7 to 8 takes to get right
25 Henry Hill’s life after he went into the witness protection program was adapted into a movie released the same year as Goodfellas – called My Blue Heaven. Nicholas Pilei’s wife wrote the script for the film.
26 According to Scorsese, legendary actor Marlon Brando attempted to persuade him to not make the movie.
27 The real life Henry Hill was paid around half a million dollars for the movie.
28 Robert De Niro was offered the roles of both Jimmy and Tommy. He chose the former.
29 Despite it’s status as a classic, Goodfellas only won one Oscar. And its winner, Joe Pesci, was so surprised, that his winning speech was one of the shortest in Oscar history, simply saying, “it’s my privilege, thank you”
30 Frank Vincent, the man who plays Billy Batts and is beaten and stabbed to death by Joe Pesci, and who also starred with Pesci in two other Scorsese films – Ragin Bull and Casino - actually has a long history with Pesci. The two used to be bandmates and a comedy duo in the late 60s. They also starred in the low budget 1976 mafia film The Death Colelctor, where they were spotted by Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, and eventually hired for their roles in Raging Bull.
31 The producer’s original choices for the roles of Henry and Karen were Tom Cruise and Madonna.
32 Paul Sorvini improvised the slap that his character gives Henry in the scene where Paulie confronts Henry about drug dealing
33 In the original shooting script of the film, the Billy Batts shinebox scene was the very first scene in the film, followed by the dinner at Tommy’s mother’s house. Then Liotta would say the phrase “As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster” and the movie would show his youth and growing up.
34 Early screenings of Goodfellas were met with poor reception. According to Pileggi, one screening had around 70 people walk out, and in another the film’s team had to hide at a local bowling alley as a result of an audience angry at the film’s level of violence.
35 In spite of the film’s violent reputation, there are only 5 on screen deaths
36 When Spider is shot by Tommy, Michael Imperioli broke a glass in his hand and had to be rushed to hospital. But when he got there, the doctors attempted to treat his apparent gunshot wound. When the actor revealed what his real injury was, he was made to wait for 3 hours in the emergency room. Scorsese told Imperioli that he would tell this story one day on the tonight show with Jay Leno, a prediction which cam true in 2000.
37 US attorney Edward McDonald, the fed who explains the ins and outs of the witness protection programme to Henry Hill and his wife, is actually playing himself in this scene, re-enacting the conversation he had with the real Henry Hill. McDonald volunteered to play the role and won a screen test when Scorsese was location scouting his office as a possible filming location.
38 The movie ends with Henry in the witness protection program, but after the film’s release, as a result of violating his terms and conditions, including going around and telling people who he was, Henry Hill was thrown out of the programme.
39 Henry requests that he isn’t sent anywhere cold when g egos into the programme. In the ending of the film, he picks up a newspaper for Youngstown in Ohio, a place which has below freezing temperaturs in winter, suggesting that Henry’s wish was not granted.
40 The film’s ending, where Joe Pesci fires several bullets staring at the camera, is a homage to the landmark 1903 short film The Great Train Robbery, widely considered one of the first narrative pictures. Scorsese saw his movie as part of a tradition of outlaws in American pop culture and noted that, in spite of the fact tat the two films are separated by almost a century, according to the man himself, “they’re essentially the same story.”

Luchino Visconti's The Leopard Or: Why I Think It's One of the Greatest Adaptations (SPOILERS)

Once again, before I start my analysis on why I think Luchino Visconti's The Leopard is a fantastic adaptation, it should be worth noting that there ARE spoilers in this review regarding with both the film and the novel. If you haven't watched nor read the book or movie (I highly recommend you reading the book first and watching the movie after to appreciate this one), then go do so before reading this.
Warning: This review will spoil the last two chapters of the novel version. The movie doesn't show the last two chapters.
There has been a lot of wonderful adaptations from theater to the big screens, myth to big screen, maybe even a line from a song into a movie. But we cannot forget about the most common source of film adaptation: Books themselves. There has been a lot of successful and not-so-successful novels in the history of films including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Martian, The Princess Bride, Casino, and the list of adaptations can go on forever. Film has always had some type of relationship with literature. Some novels depict different meanings and interpretations from the directors, most notably ones like A Clockwork Orange. However, there has been one adaptation that has stayed on my mind ever since I first watched it years ago. It was the story of Il Gattopardo or The Leopard, written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and then directed by Luchino Visconti, the movie itself is already a beautiful film about old Sicily.
So, what makes The Leopard so different from other adaptations. Let's go through a quick preview of the good qualities that I'll be talking about: It follows by the author's style of having a timeline of random events that are linked together, the cinematography captures Lampedusa's detailed portrait of Sicily, the acting is superb, and how Visconti implants the last two chapters into the film's third to final chapter or A Ball, November 1862. These three reasons mean more than what I have listed.
Starting off with the story structure in both versions, they don't have an actual linear story. There's not really a main problem, there's not a main antagonist, and there aren't any exterior conflicts to really sink into. When I first read this, I'll admit, I felt lost with what was going on. I didn't know what it was about and I was expecting some type of serious conflict going on. In fact, I knew it was going to be an interior conflict but much rather a more serious problem. After a while, the storyline sinks into me about halfway through the novel and I begin to understand much more of how Lampedusa writes it out. It's not a very easy story, but after you find the indirect, miniscule connection between these random events, they slowly knit themselves together for a good finale. Let's talk about the novel first for now. The story is about the chronicles of the final days of a dying clan in which there is always a prince (Or the leader of the family) that is called, "The Leopard." The main character, Prince Don Fabrizio (Played by Burt Lancaster in the film), is a grouchy prince that has strict rules and a strict schedule in his house and wherever he goes. His family fear him, the people try not to upset him, and his wife must control her tantrums before the Prince starts to get mad with her. At first, we don't see much of this guy. He's not sympathetic, kind, or the type of person we would want to be with. Later on, towards the end of the novel, Lampedusa specifically wrote the last parts of the novel with little to no attention towards this character. He turns sympathetic, old, sorrowful, and eventually dies off without much detail in the novel. In the movie adaptation, Visconti also follows Lampedusa's direction by showing his sorrow, pain, and his little to none screen time in the Ball sequence or the third act of the tale. There is a melancholic tone with how Visconti created the ending. It's much more different than the novel and there's an emptiness in that final act. Sure, Prince Fabrizio is just slowly walking off into the dark alley but nothing more, nothing less. We feel sad that we expected a superior and much more emotional ending. But Visconti took Lampedusa's interpretation of Sicily as an old city that always sticks to tradition, one that doesn't change so easily. Even in the end of the second act, Prince Fabrizio told Chevalley, a government official requesting Prince Fabrizio to be an appointed member of the Senate, hoping to hear and have some change in Sicily. Fabrizio refuses, saying that Sicilians aren't interested in change or even in politics for that matter. Sicily, for Lampedusa, is a place that rarely changes while the rest of Italy begins to change around them. They are a dying part of Italy but one that is still barely alive. With the sadness and the timeline of the story structure, Lampedusa and Visconti creates melancholy throughout the whole story to show the final days of Prince Fabrizio, the last Leopard. I think it's just one of those fascinating stories that Visconti adapted the same way Lampedusa did and I think it was a great choice.
The cinematography itself is also a grand masterpiece on it's own. There are several scenes in this film that uses an old but familiar technique called the deep focus/depth technique. First famously shown in Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game and later with Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, The Leopard also uses this to display his shots as art rather than a literary device to tell multiple subplots or a different viewpoint of the situation. There are a few shots that do tell that different viewpoint but his deep-focus is what made his film so grand. One of my favorite shots in this film is in a scene where Prince Fabrizio, Chevalley, Tancredi (Played by Alain Delon), and a few other family members (I believe, if my mind doesn't trick me, also including Count Cavriaghi played by Terence Hill), are all playing cards together in the living room. They're talking, nothing dramatic about the situation. We just see a group of men playing cards while there is a large hallway filled with open doors. The depth on this shot is enormous and superb. The depth and the constant use of big hallways with open doors is a common trick even in Jean Renoir's 1939 classic. But Visconti uses this properly to create a painting itself. Renoir uses this technique to tell a story and to easily slide from one subplot to another while Visconti rarely moves the camera, letting it just stay there and let the audience sink into the painting itself. Of course, where the deep focus is at it's best would be none other than the ball sequence. With the duration of about 45 fast-paced minutes, Visconti creates a ball that is dazzling, lost, and completed with masterful composition and execution that compares to Kurosawa's strictly straightforward and symphonic composition and movements in nearly all the films he's made within his grand 30 film career. While this famous ball sequence makes it hard for us, the audience, to find our protagonists in the waltzes, it is purely intentional and reasonable to do so because no large party can make it easy for anyone to find somebody in the mass crowd of dresses, movement, and joy of everyone in that room (Hoping the screams are made of joy, not of fear). It is not nearly as great as Renoir's party sequence but the way Visconti continues on with the story is wonderful. Not a single minute was wasted in this sequence. The lighting is great, no shot ever felt unreasonable, and the use of long shots also gives the audience a moment of reflection and recovery from such dizzying and overwhelming amount of details in one scene alone from this movie at any point of the story, not just the ball itself. Lampedusa's novel is also quite overwhelming and might require one to take a rest from a chapter or a part in the story (The novel itself is made up of parts with no minor chapters. Every chapter is a part of the book so there's no minor checkpoints or save spots). Close-ups have been perfectly used and far-shots aren't too far for us to not be able to see the action. The position of the camera is used wonderfully, not indicating the wrong interpretation or feeling for the character themselves. Thank you Giuseppe Rotunno (The cinematographer) for properly understanding the craft, the importance of cinematography, and how this can tell a story indirectly but importantly. Giuseppe's work also contributes well to the spectacular performances of our main characters.
For acting, Burt Lancaster plays a character that isn't a direct rip from the original source novel. The novel depicts him as a mean and grouchy man. However, Burt's version is a much more calm, understandable, while intimidating at times of a character. It's also wonderful that despite it was against Visconti's vision to be playing him (Visconti didn't like Burt at first), he eventually got the respect and even the friendship with Visconti himself. They became great friends afterwards and it's very rare to have a Hollywood actor as kind, understandable, yet strong as Burt. One that has perhaps inspired some of the many other wonderful actors including Robert Mitchum (Who was making films the same period as Burt) and Arnold Schwarzenegger. His intense expressions in the film subtly hints at what Lampedusa's version of the character originally was. While he plays a different type of character, he also respects the author's original view on the character. I would go as far to say that I enjoy Burt's version of the character much more than the novel itself. There's a certain charm that Lancaster brings into his role that clicks wonderfully in the adaptation that Lampedusa's version couldn't exactly hold. Not all the praise is going to the already fascinating Burt but also everyone else in the film. Claudia's character plays with a sense of class but also the implication and body language of an immature girl inside. She is perhaps the only perfect role in the film as she is the only one in that entire film's cast that is Italian or at least looks like Italian. She's charming but it's not her charm that takes the showcase but also her brilliant level of acting. While I love Cardinale and Lancaster, I think the one that really took the show was Alain Delon's portrayal of Tancredi Falconeri. His role is played with such power and ferociousness that many might end up thinking that he could've been the next Leopard. His character is very relaxed, interesting, and fun to watch on screen. He plays as the young and daring boy going headfirst into war. While my descriptions on him don't feel like justice to how I love his role in this film, there is one scene in particular that I really think was executed fairly well and just may be one of those scenes in the film that many have overlooked on. In the scene that I will be discussing, Tancredi (Alain Delon) meets Angelica (Claudia Cardinale) for the first time and fascinated but also falling love with her at the same time. Meanwhile, Concetta (Lucilla Morlacchi), a lady who has been with Tancredi and in love with him at the same time, doesn't speak much during the conversation but rather developing somewhat of a jealousy for her. If it isn't jealousy, then who knows what really went on her mind? Both the novel and the film itself points the spotlight towards Tancredi and Angelica. Tancredi tells them about a story of his time at the army when he stormed into a convent. In the end, he told Angelica that if she was there, the soldiers wouldn't have needed the nuns. Angelica laughs wholeheartedly at this story while Concetta misunderstood the story and gets upset at Tancredi and his inappropriate story. She turns her back to him and walks away. Given the context, the reason why this certain scene in the story is so great can only be explained through the last chapter of the book. This leads me to the final point of this essay, the masterful and rewarding foreshadowing of the film.
At this point, this is where spoiler territory comes in. In the final chapter of the novel version, Angelica and Concetta are two elderly women living in their dead mansion in early 1900s Italy. One day, Tassoni visits Concetta. Tancredi, who married Angelica sometime between the 1862-1883, has already died sometime ago from old age while Angelica is still alive and just met Concetta right before the scene I am about to introduce. Everyone else has already died long ago, leaving Angelica, Tassoni, Concetta, Carolina, and Caterina (The last two mentioned are younger sisters of Concetta) as the last of their family and the last living characters in the story. Tassoni reveals to Concetta that Tancredi always loved her and even Lampedusa hinted a detail in the chapter, "Love at Donnafugata," that Tancredi and Angelica's love relationship would never been as wonderful as it will ever be other than that time in the chapter when they were running around in the old mansion. While there were no arguments or any contempt mentioned in this story, he didn't make them live happily ever after like a fairy tale. Sure, they loved each other but it was really Concetta that Tancredi truly loved. And you know which scene in the story did he showed his love for her once? Yes, the dinner scene where he was telling the story. He was nervous to even talk to her and often talked to Angelica instead. Alain Delon does justice to this scene by having his character tell the story while giving off quick, frantic nervousness in his body language by having his eyes look behind him where Concetta is sitting every few seconds while also stuttering and moving more than usual. The body language isn't easy to notice if you have never read the book or found out about his love for Concetta (Even though he did love her in the beginning) but for those who have read the book, I highly advise you to observe Delon's body language in this scene the next time you watch this (If you noticed it, I'm very proud of you that I'm not the only one to have noticed this). Tassoni told Concetta that Tancredi confessed that the story about the convent was all a lie and that he wanted to kiss Concetta when she reacted with anger to the story. The grief of Tancredi's character stayed with him forever until his death and this just may be one of the reasons why Tancredi and Angelica's relationship never soared off. It was because he never loved her truly as Angelica and he lost the chance of loving Concetta. An unforeseen tragedy that the film barely shown (The tragedy of the relationship with Tancredi and Concetta actually occurs in the Ball chapter of the film but never goes into full depth as the novel did). The film itself didn't just foreshadow the last chapter but also the second to last chapter that didn't make it. The second to last chapter is also in the Ball chapter. The novel never discussed it nor mention anything about the painting on the wall in the library room. In the film, Prince Fabrizio goes into the library to take a rest from the exhausting and youthfully energetic ballroom waltzes and discussions. His face all sweaty and a tired expression wearing him down. He notices a painting above a mantelpiece. The painting shows a dying man in his bed with his loved ones, including his dog, around him at his final moments. The pain and sadness in the man's expression as everyone around him weep in a emotionally brutal image. Prince Fabrizio looks at this image for a long time before being interrupted by Tancredi and Angelica. The foreshadowing here is much more obvious than the example I gave above. In that second to last chapter, Prince Fabrizio dies from old age in a hotel room in Sicily. The date was July 1883 and everyone, including Tancredi and his favorite dog, Bendico, are watching him at his last minutes. It is a tragic scene that Visconti couldn't shoot but rather symbolize in the ballroom sequence which I think is one of the best uses of foreshadowing.
After my initial viewing of The Leopard, I fell in love and understood why director Martin Scorsese admired this film so much. Other than the beautiful cinematography done by Giuseppe Rotunno, there's a whole layer of appreciation to the novel that the readers can admire that Visconti understood. He implanted the last two chapters of the story, made sure the actors like Delon are hinting at a much more detailed character study, and capturing the colossal and challenging of the story with deep, lyrical cinematic poetry. I think I can safely say that Luchino Visconti's The Leopard is an adaptation masterpiece and one that I would recommend people reading first before watching. You wouldn't be appreciating as much as I did if you haven't read the novel. After countless films and adaptations, this one is one of the few films I have seriously enjoyed and appreciated in a long time.
The Leopard is a spectacular, complex novel and Visconti did more than just making another great film, he gave us, what I consider, one of the greatest adaptations.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the long post btw. This is not for school I swear!

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 2006 Winners

casino martin scorsese cast video

Directed by Martin Scorsese. With Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods. A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer and a casino executive compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast-living and fast-loving socialite. Casino (1995) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Martin Scorsese: Ranked. I don't know anymore if my love for gangster/mob films is because I grew up on Scorsese, or I love Scorsese because I love gangster films. I think its the combination of them both. Casino is often regarded as too similar to "GoodFellas" , which is the equivalent of saying Star Wars is too similar to The Hidden Fortress. As much as Martin Scorsese may have skewered gangster history by telling Frank Sheeran’s version of things in The Irishman, he got it exactly right when he did it on his own with Casino.This Casino is a 1995 film and gamblling movie about Las Vegas by Martin Scorsese starring Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci. Experts in Sports and Gambling Sports Royal Martin Scorsese Casino Cast Panda reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of its promotions at any time.; In the event of conflicting information, the information described in the terms and conditions for Martin Scorsese Casino Cast Royal Martin Scorsese Casino Cast Panda promotions and bonuses shall prevail over any descriptions provided in Martin Scorsese Casino Cast As Martin Scorsese celebrates his 78th birthday, we took a look back at half a century of his greatest films, from mob classics to period dramas and just about every iteration of New York City you Casino in some respects is director Martin Scorsese dialing Goodfellas up to 11. Oh, you want the mob life? Well here it is in Chairman of the board brashness and lurid VEGAS BABY! sindulgence, where gambling king and long-term gaming licensee in waiting Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) funnels money out the back door of the fictional Tangiers hotel he all but runs for the mob elders

casino martin scorsese cast top

The Great Gatsbyfellas (Casino/Goodfellas - The Great Gatsby mash up trailer)

Barry Norman talks to Martin Scorsese about his film Kundun. From 30th March 1998. Martin Charles Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time ... Directed by Martin Scorsese. Cast: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Frank Vincent, Alan King. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110932/?ref_=nv_sr_1 ótimo filme com direção de Martin Scorsese e grande elenco,e excelente dublagem da herbert richers Martin Scorsese directed this movie in such a way that just about every scene Pasquale Cajano (Remo) is in, a bright spotlight shines down upon him, but no other cast members in the scene. Filming Locations of the movie "Casino" from Martin Scorsese with Robert de Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci as main actors. It was mainly filmed in Las Vegas. I do not own the movie or the music ... What if The Great Gatsby was directed by Martin Scorsese in early 90s? Well it sure would have been a lot less Kanye West-ish compared to a recent movie. Made by Cruciatus Cast: Jay Gatsby ... Sorry for being away so long guys! Hopefully this review makes up for it but I'm back in the swing of things and I'm already researching my next review. Than... Even though Martin Scorsese is famous for his use of music, one of his best traits is his deliberate and powerful use of silence. Take a glimpse at fifty yea...

Martin Scorsese’s 25 best movies: From Casino to

casino martin scorsese cast

casino martin scorsese cast - win

[US] Casino (1995) Martin Scorsese directs this tale of a mafia enforcer and a casino executive competing against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast living and fast loving socialite. With an all star cast including Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci.

TIL that Martin Scorsese cast his mother in a bunch of his movies, including Mean Streets, Casino and Goodfellas

Review of Martin Scorsese’s 1995 Casino [A mob movie that has many actors that will go on to be in the Sopranos].

A Cinematic Guide to The Weeknd: Pt 3. My Dear Melancholy and After Hours

My Dear Melancholy

After Hours

Postscript

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 1995 Winners

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 1995 Winners

If Black Mass had been directed by Martin Scorsese, do you think it would've been a better film?

'The Irishman' Review Thread

Turner Classic Movies (U.S.) Schedule For The Month Of September, 2020 (All Airtimes E.S.T)

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 2006 Winners

Goodfellas turns 30 this year! Here are 40 interesting pieces of fact and trivia about the classic mob movie

Luchino Visconti's The Leopard Or: Why I Think It's One of the Greatest Adaptations (SPOILERS)

Reddit Chosen Oscars: 2006 Winners

casino martin scorsese cast video

casino martin scorsese cast top

The Great Gatsbyfellas (Casino/Goodfellas - The Great Gatsby mash up trailer)