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Murder A La Mod
''Murder a la Mod'' is a 1968 American film directed by Brian De Palma in his first feature film as a director and writer. An experimental, low-budget murder-mystery, it was shot on black-and-white 16mm film. Following its limited theatrical release, the film was rarely seen until its reissue on DVD in 2006. Plot summary In a prologue shown from the point of view of a camera viewfinder, a series of female models in a studio are asked by an off-screen cameraman to undress for a screen test. One model is seemingly stabbed by the unseen man behind the camera. During an afternoon of shopping in Manhattan's boutiques, Karen, another model, tells her socialite friend Tracy about her fiancé Christopher, a photographer and widower. Tracy visits her bank to withdraw money and jewelry from her safe deposit box, which she places inside a large envelope. Meanwhile, Karen catches sight of Christopher in the street and follows him to his studio, where she discovers he is shooting a sexploita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors.Murray, Noel & Tobias, Scott (March 10, 2011)"Brian De Palma , Film , Primer" ''The A.V. Club''. Retrieved February 3, 2012. His direction often makes use of quotations from other films or cinematic styles, and bears the influence of filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard. His films have been criticized for their violence and sexual content but have also been championed by American critics such as Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael. His films include mainstream box office hits such as '' Carrie'' (1976), '' Dressed to Kill'' (1980), '' Scarface'' (1983), ''The Untouchables'' (1987), and '' Mission: Impossible'' (1996), as well as cult favorites such as ''Sisters'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andra Akers
Andra Akers (September 16, 1943 – March 20, 2002) was an American actress and philanthropist. A character actress, she appeared in films, theater and television, usually in tough or brassy roles. Early life and education Akers was born in New York City. Her father, Anthony B. Akers, was a veteran World War II naval officer and attorney who became the United States ambassador to New Zealand during the Kennedy administration. Her mother, Jane Pope, was the daughter of the architect John Russell Pope. She was descended from William Ellery. Her sister, Ellery Akers, is a poet and naturalist based in Northern California. Career During her time in New Zealand she attended Victoria University of Wellington and appeared in a 1962 production of Chekhov's ''The Seagull''. She continued her studies at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, majoring in theater and political science. She made her film debut in Brian de Palma's '' Murder a la Mod'' in 1968. Her acting career span ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blow Out
''Blow Out'' is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, serendipitously captures audio evidence of an assassination involving a presidential hopeful. Nancy Allen stars as Sally Bedina, a young woman involved in the crime. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow and Dennis Franz. The film's tagline in advertisements was, "Murder has a sound all of its own". Directly based on Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film ''Blowup'', the film replaces the medium of photography with the medium of audio recording. The concept of ''Blow Out'' came to De Palma while he was working on the thriller '' Dressed to Kill'' (1980). The film was shot in the late autumn and winter of 1980 in various Philadelphia locations on a relatively substantial budget of $18 million. ''Blow Out'' opened to minuscule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of storing several hours of high-definition video (HDTV 720p and 1080p). The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox Series X. The name "Blu-ray" refers to the blue laser (which is actually a Violet (color), violet laser) used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs. The polycarbonate disc is in diameter and thick, the same size as DVDs and Compact disc, CDs. Conventional or pre-BD-XL Blu-ray Discs contain 25 gigabyte, GB per layer, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,000 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via an online streaming service that the company operates. History The company was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein, Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck, who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker and Jonathan B. Turell f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Something Weird Video
Something Weird Video is an American film distributor company based in Seattle, Washington. They specialize in exploitation B to Z films, particularly the works of Harry Novak, Doris Wishman, David F. Friedman and Herschell Gordon Lewis. Inspiration The company is named after Lewis' 1967 film '' Something Weird'', and the logo is taken from that film's original poster art. History Something Weird Video was founded in 1990 by Mike Vraney in Seattle. He was inspired by his teenage job as a theater projectionist. His love for the obscure films that never made it to video prompted him to transfer hundreds of ancient reels of film to VHS videotape and DVD. On the company website, Vraney explains the label's genesis: In my mind, the last great genre to be scavenged were the exploitation / sexploitation films of the 1920s through the 1970s. After looking into this further, I realized that there were nearly 2,000 movies out there yet to be discovered. So with this for inspiration, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital media, digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as ''The Daily (podcast), The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones (publisher), George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked List of newspapers by circulation, 18th in the world by circulation and List of newspapers in the United States, 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is Public company, publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 189 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. He reviewed more than one thousand films during his tenure there. Early life Canby was born in Chicago, the son of Katharine Anne (née Vincent) and Lloyd Canby. He attended boarding school in Christchurch, Virginia, with novelist William Styron, and the two became friends. He introduced Styron to the works of E.B. White and Ernest Hemingway; the pair hitchhiked to Richmond to buy ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''. He became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve on October 13, 1942, and reported aboard the Landing Ship, Tank 679 on July 15, 1944. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on January 1, 1946, while on LST 679 sailing near Japan. After the war, he attended Dartmouth College, but did not graduate. Career He obtained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Los Angeles Times
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashomon
is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as various people who describe how a samurai was murdered in a forest, the plot and characters are based upon Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story "In a Grove", with the title and framing story being based on "Rashōmon (short story), Rashōmon", another short story by Akutagawa. Every element is largely identical, from the murdered samurai speaking through a miko, Shinto psychic to the bandit in the forest, the monk, the assault of the wife and the dishonest retelling of the events in which everyone shows his or her ideal self by lying. The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. ''Rashomon'' was the first cinema of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Thomas (film Critic)
Kevin B. Thomas (born 1936) is an American film critic who has written reviews for the ''Los Angeles Times'' since 1962. His long tenure makes him the longest-running film critic among major United States newspapers.Interview with Kevin Thomas Alternative Projections – Los Angeles Filmforum, Retrieved October 21, 2013 Thomas was born in Los Angeles in 1936. He earned a bachelor's degree from in 1958 and master's degree from in 1960. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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