Unforgettable elliot

In part three of this series , we look at the movies that should have won the Best Picture Oscar between 1940 and 1949. Let’s begin… 1940 What Did Win: Rebecca While director Alfred Hitchcock never won a competitive Oscar, his first American film did win a Best Picture Oscar and launched a career that would ride success after success right into the ’70s, including on television. Rebecca is remembered today as something of a stiff. Well, it’s not. What we have here is a masterpiece of mood and mystery anchored by a breathtaking performance from Joan Fontaine, in her first starring role. If you give this one a chance, if you shut off the lights and turn off your phone, Rebecca will transport and thrill. What Should’ve Won: The Grapes of Wrath John Ford’s stunning adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel has lost none of its power. The director (who won his second of a still-record four Best Director Oscars) brilliantly shaped … [Read more...] about Nolte: What Should’ve Won the Best Picture Oscar – 1940 to 1949

Lists are subjective and almost always widely criticized, argued, and debated — which is the whole point. This is especially true for movie lists. Nevertheless, the top 100 movie list released by the BBC back in 2015 is one of the most derided in recent memory. The BBC polled 62 international film critics and asked them to choose the 100 greatest American films of all time. About half the list is little different from the one compiled and updated by the American Film Institute every decade. The other half is full of surprises. There is no right or wrong answer to listing your favorite films. It is all subjective. Regardless, it is still a shock to see 62 film critics choose a bunch of films everyone has written off as, at best, marginal: Spike Lee’s forgettable 25th Hour (2002) at #94; Michael Cimino’s infamous 1980 debacle Heaven’s Gate at #98; Hitchcock’s swing-and-a-miss Marnie at #47, etc. You can see the full list here . The BBC’s surprising omissions, however, … [Read more...] about Countdown: The 165 Greatest American Movies Ever Made (165-141)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Sal, Wyoming’s not a country. Director Sidney Lumet takes the true story of one of the most inept bank robberies in history and makes it better, much better , into something sublime and urgent and hilarious and unforgettable. Lumet makes you feel like a fly on the wall as a bizarrely entertaining life-moment unfurls in early-seventies Brooklyn. Warner Bros. No one famous is involved. Nothing of any consequence happened. Life happened, and life is always so much more fascinating than anything else. Dazed and Confused (1993) Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. The best movies transport you someplace else, into deep space or medieval times or Kypton. In Dazed and Confused , writer/director Richard Linklater transports you to a simpler place: a small Texas town in 1976 where we join a group of suburban high school kids on their last day of school. … [Read more...] about Countdown: The 165 Greatest American Movies Ever Made (16-40)

Satyajit Ray would have been a hundred years old on May 2. Rediff.com bring you a treasure trove of features from our archives. IMAGE: Satyajit Ray with wife Bijoya and son Sandip. Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/Twitter On May 12, 2005, Satyajit Ray's first film, Pather Panchali , was screened at the Cannes film festival, marking the masterpiece's 50th anniversary. On that occasion, Indrani Roy/ Rediff.com spoke to Sandip Ray , Satyajit Ray's only child, who, ironically, was not invited to Cannes. Indrani Roy sadly passed away in Kolkata last month after a brief illness. We mourn Indrani's loss and her indomitable spirit. On Ray, the father IMAGE: Satyajit Ray discusses a scene with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore on the sets of Aranyer Din Ratri . Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/Twitter Baba was a workaholic to the core and loved to keep himself busy. His days always started early with a cup of tea before … [Read more...] about My Father, Satyajit Ray

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more . Pot black Kevin Lynch 17 Apr 2021 Snooker's most prestigious event returns to its familiar April slot in the sporting calendar, with Ronnie O'Sullivan looking to win the tournament a seventh time. Read on to find out how to get a World Snooker Championship live stream and watch all the action from anywhere in the world. Source: The Crucible Theatre Last year's tournament, which was delayed until July due to the pandemic, saw Rocket Ronnie beat Kyren Wilson in the final, marking the first time the popular Londoner had won the tournament since 2011. O'Sullivan's main rivals for retaining the title this time out according to snooker pundits will likely be world No.1 Judd Trump, three-time champion Mark Selby and 2009 winner Neil Robertson. Kyren Wilson is also expected to challenge once again, and fans will be hoping he can provide similar unforgettable moments as last year, with … [Read more...] about 2021 World Snooker Championship live stream: How to watch the action from the Crucible online from anywhere

Earlier this month I was self-isolating in my room — PMS’ing, cranky, hitting the same pandemic wall we all are — when a scene from the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race shook me out of my funk with a moment of ascendant joy. By Episode 13 of what’s been, by this point, an unusually long season (no complaints here — I’ve loved every minute), we were finally down to the top five. On Friday night, the hilarious and enigmatic Kandy Muse and sweet, smiley Olivia Lux found themselves at risk of elimination. Neither their relatively one-note performances in the acting challenge nor their looks for a “Haute Pocket”–themed runway impressed the judges; Olivia’s minidress was kind of boring, and Kandy’s fit, god love her, was just a big old mess . But they both had the chance to redeem themselves with the traditional tiebreaker — a lip sync for their lives. It immediately became clear that Bronx-bred Kandy, who had a panic attack while filming the gossipy backstage bonus show … [Read more...] about “Drag Race” Was A Drag For A While. Now It’s Better Than Ever.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has taken the moral high ground over the Greensill lobbying scandal in heated exchanges in the Commons. When Boris Johnson hit back that Lord Mandelson, the former Labour trade secretary who is an adviser to Starmer, runs a lobbying company, Sir Keir said with a triumphant flourish: ‘I have not heard a defence that ridiculous since my last days in Crown Court. It is called the shoplifters’ defence. “Everyone else is nicking stuff, so why can’t I?”’ Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, twisted the knife, saying: ‘I remind the PM that I not only prosecuted shoplifters, I prosecuted MPs over the expenses scandal, so I stand on my record.’ Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) has taken the moral high ground over the Greensill lobbying scandal in heated exchanges in the Commons. What Starmer omitted to say was that he prosecuted Labour MPs. They included Eric Illsley, the Barnsley Central MP who was jailed for 12 … [Read more...] about ANDREW PIERCE: Scandal-buster Keir Starmer… scourge of Labour MPs

From Oscar-winning documentaries like Icarus all the way through to crowd-pleasing viral hits like Tiger King , Netflix has documentaries on almost every possible topic. We've decided to highlight some of our favourites. They're in no particular order, and it's impossible to represent the broad spectrum of what's available. We've just called out the documentaries we think you can't miss. This Is A Robbery Netflix This Is A Robbery is about Netflix as it gets. A four-part series focusing on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, this is essentially a documentary about an art heist. Remember Evil Genius? (Which is also on this list.) This Is A Robbery is very much in that style. The first episode takes a while to get going, but be patient -- this one has a pay off. Murder Among the Mormons Netflix Some of Netflix's more recent true crime documentaries have been a bit bloated and... sorta bad? Thankfully Murder Among the Mormons is a return to … [Read more...] about The 29 best documentaries to watch on Netflix in 2021