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David Thomson on Frank Langella

Frank Langella will be 72 on New Year's Day, and he is ready. I was going to add "at last". Because for decades he seemed an uneasy actor on screen. His stage reputation was beyond dispute, and people said that he looked the part – tall, dark and ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Frank Langella,  David Thomson,  Richard Kelly,  Edward Albee,  Peter Morgan

David Thomson on Isabelle Huppert

'Who the hell is Isabelle Huppert?" The question rang through the offices of United Artists nearly 30 years ago, when Michael Cimino tried to cast the role of Ella in Heaven's Gate. The executive in charge of production, Steven Bach, later wrote: "I ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  5 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Isabelle Huppert,  David Thomson,  Michael Cimino,  Meryl Streep,  Miranda Richardson

The honorary Oscars: why you should care

In awarding the Oscars for 2010, the Academy has chosen to give the Irving Thalberg award (its highest individual distinction) to John Calley. Now, you may not know who Calley is, and that is a mark of his distinctive modesty. But in the 1970s, he was ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  5 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Academy Awards,  Warner Brothers,  Roger Corman,  Edgar Allan Poe,  Jack Nicholson

Leonardo DiCaprio's Third Man remake is a cuckoo-clock idea

Hold on to something firm and reliable, please this paper has no wish to cause accidents. Some stories hurt. Thus, there is a rumour going around that Leonardo DiCaprio is thinking of playing Harry Lime in a remake of The Third Man. For the moment, I ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  27 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Leonardo DiCaprio,  Orson Welles,  Kate Winslet,  Tom Cruise,  Tobey Maguire

Orson Welles: The most glorious film failure of them all

You can say he was a failure – but that only leads to a more demanding appreciation of success than numbers will ever satisfy (George Lucas, I read the other day, has a net worth of around $5bn). Orson Welles never directed a picture that made a profit ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  22 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Peter Bogdanovich,  George Lucas,  William Randolph Hearst,  John Ford,  Preston Sturges

The last picture show: a sequel | David Thomson

Not so long ago, Francis Ford Coppola used to make predictions about the future of cinema. It was going to be "electronic", he promised. Even while shooting one of his films, he liked to sit in a hi-tech caravan – The Silverfish, he called it – playing ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  16 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Francis Ford Coppola,  David Thomson,  George Lucas

Just how good was Heath Ledger?

Heath Ledger's last role, in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. Photograph: Everett Collection / Rex Features Heath Ledger, in his final role as the mysterious outsider Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, will probably be kept from strict ...

From DAVID THOMSON, The Observer,  13 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Heath Ledger,  James Dean,  Terry Gilliam,  Brad Pitt,  Elia Kazan

Short Cuts

Here is your exam question: who is the last American movie director who made thirty-nine films but never won the Oscar for best director? Name the film by that director that cost the most money, and name the film of his that earned the most. Clue: The ...

From DAVID THOMSON, The New Republic,  13 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Robert Altman,  Jimmy Dean,  Martin Scorsese,  Warren Beatty,  John McCabe

'American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood'

What prompted Marc Eliot to give us another life of Clint Eastwood? A little over 10 years ago, two other biographies appeared, one by Richard Schickel and another by Patrick McGilligan. Schickel, who has worked with Eastwood and who did his book as an ...

From DAVID THOMSON, San Francisco Chronicle,  11 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Clint Eastwood,  Nelson Mandela,  Morgan Freeman,  Academy Awards

Roman Polanski and the 31-year-old legal headache

The arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland has set a very old problem back in motion. A Los Angeles judge is going to have an awkward time Roman Polanski leaving court after being ordered to report for psychiatric examination in 1977. Photograph: ...

From DAVID THOMSON, Guardian Unlimited,  28 Sep 2009

Related Topics: Roman Polanski,  Jack Nicholson,  British Airways

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