Top Ten Psychiatrists / Psychoanalysts

Psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, therapists. Group therapy or one-on-one. Mentalist, alienist, psychoanalyst, shrink.

Speaking of the original HBO series In Treatment, which itself comes from the Israeli BeTipul, I thought of no better way to wrap up this series of rankings, especially since I had my share of shrinks in my time. :-)

The number one “psychiatric” film would be One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, Milos Forman), but the psychiatrist there is merely window dressing; Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) is the one who embodies the oppressive system. And then there’s virtually any Woody Allen film, especially the Gene Wilder episode from *Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), featuring the doctor who falls in love with Daisy the sheep, which I previously discussed in my ranking of performances in Woody Allen films.

K-PAX (2001, Iain Softley), in which Jeff Bridges plays Dr. Mark Powell, treating an alien—or merely a psychotic patient? (Kevin Spacey)—and the Argentine counterpart Hombre mirando al sudeste (1986, Eliseo Subiela), are really about the patients, much like Nash (Russell Crowe) in A Beautiful Mind (2001, Ron Howard).

There’s also Dr. Marc Chabot (Yves Montand) in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970, Vincente Minnelli), who hypnotizes Barbra Streisand and discovers she has lived previous lives. Barbra herself tried being a doctor in The Prince of Tides (1991), attempting to cure Nick Nolte.

But my personal favorite is Klaus Kinski as Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot in Buddy Buddy (1981), Billy Wilder’s remake (and final film) of L’Emmerdeur (1973, Édouard Molinaro), unfortunately only a supporting role, complete with a fondness for nudist therapy.

And then there’s Dr. Elliot (Michael Caine) from Brian De Palma’s thriller Dressed to Kill (1980), whom I would call the “cross-dressing” variation.

Still, I decided to give the place to the illustrious Dr. Caligari. To paraphrase Siegfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler, this ranking goes from Caligari to Freud...

10. Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene)

Variation: creepy

Dr. Caligari runs an asylum and uses the somnambulist Cesare for various dirty jobs. Similar to Edgar Allan Poe’s The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether and its idea that the inmates have taken over the asylum.

Its descendants include Asylum (1972, Roy Ward Baker), as well as the opening and cover art of In the Mouth of Madness (1995, John Carpenter).

Successors: Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, Dr. M, the mega-villains of the James Bond franchise beginning with Dr. No, etc.

Caligari controls Cesare, in a scene set to music by Lacrimosa.

(The full film can be found on YouTube.)

9. Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) in Spellbound (1945, directed by Alfred Hitchcock)

Variation: mysterious

A thriller populated by psychiatrists, fascinated with psychoanalysis—a fairly new concept in Hollywood at the time—partly inspired by producer David O. Selznick’s own experiences in therapy.

Psychiatrist Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) treats the amnesiac John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), accused of murder.

Based on the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Francis Beeding, the pseudonym of John Palmer and Hilary St. George Sanders, screenplay by Ben Hecht.

Memorable above all for its dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí, and for a recurring skiing sequence.

Successor: Gothika (2003, Mathieu Kassovitz), with Halle Berry as an amnesiac psychiatrist committed to an asylum for a murder she cannot remember committing.

Trailer! (The full film can be found on YouTube.)

8. Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in Anger Management (2003, directed by Peter Segal)

Variation: out-of-control!

Jack Nicholson, usually the patient :-) (with the exception of “The Specialist” in the musical Tommy (1975), Ken Russell’s adaptation of The Who), plays an anger-management therapist—or whatever the proper term may be; the closest translation I found was “treatment for controlling one’s temper”—in a mediocre film that deserved a much better director.

A vehicle for Adam Sandler, who, when placed face to face with Jack’s explosive personality, is completely eclipsed.

Best scene: Adam, backed up by Jack, singing I Feel Pretty from West Side Story on the bridge!

7. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) in the Halloween series

Created by John Carpenter for the landmark 1978 film.

The name was borrowed from Psycho, from the character played by John Gavin, Sam Loomis.

Dr. Loomis is Michael Myers’ nemesis. He treated him at the institution from which Myers escaped. He is also the commentator, the voice of reason, and the only character besides Michael Myers himself to appear throughout the series: five films, including Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, released shortly before Pleasence’s death in 1995.

Played by Malcolm McDowell in Rob Zombie’s remake.

On the nature of evil!

6. Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) in Analyze This (1999, directed by Harold Ramis)

Variation: sleeps with the fishes!

Mob boss Vitti (Robert De Niro) has problems and decides to see a psychiatrist. But nobody must find out. Otherwise Vitti might end up sleeping with the fishes too, Luca Brasi style.

Nemesis: Chazz Palminteri, to whom the meaning of the word “closure” has to be explained.

The dramatic TV version: The Sopranos, released the very same year. Which came first? Only they know who inspired whom, but Analyze This is the parody version, a kind of sitcom blown up to feature-film proportions.

Sequel: Analyze That (2002), also directed by Harold Ramis.

Explaining the Oedipus complex! “Fuckin’ Greeks!”

5. Dr. Bill Capa (Bruce Willis) in Color of Night (1994, directed by Richard Rush)

Variation: it’s so bad, it’s good!

The most improbable psychiatrist ever.

Color-blind, traumatized by the color red, trapped in a Hitchcockian thriller inspired in part by Vertigo. Someone starts killing off his patients.

The patient roster is practically a compendium of cult actors: Lance Henriksen, Brad Dourif, Lesley Ann Warren, Kevin J. O'Connor.

Steamy sex scenes with the then-young Jane March (The Lover).

Bruce also played a psychiatrist, Dr. Crowe, in The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan), but I left him off the list for objective reasons: he belongs to the spirit world. :-)

A fan-made video clip for the title song (super-cheesy), performed by Lauren Christy!

4. Dr. Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) in Equus (1977, directed by Sidney Lumet)

Variation: equestrian

A drama written by Peter Shaffer, adapted from his own play, in which Harry Potter himself (a.k.a. Daniel Radcliffe) is currently appearing nude on Broadway.

Burton delivers a magnificent performance as a doctor determined to cure an extremely disturbed young man obsessed with horses (Peter Firth).

Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay) and winner of two Golden Globes, for Best Dramatic Actor (Burton) and Best Supporting Actor (Firth).

In the original Broadway production (1974–75), Anthony Hopkins played Dysart.

Trailer!

3. Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) in What About Bob? (1991, directed by Frank Oz)

Variation: funny

Bill Murray is Bob, the patient who relentlessly torments Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss).

The Romanian title used on television (since it never received a theatrical release) was The Psychiatrist on Vacation.

Similar: the Burt Reynolds / Dom DeLuise pairing in The End (1978, directed by Burt Reynolds).

The “Gimme Gimme, I Need I Need...” scene. (The full film can be found on YouTube.)

2. Col. Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach) in The Ninth Configuration (1980, directed by William Peter Blatty)

Variation: red herrings!

Based on William Peter Blatty’s novel Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane (The Exorcist).

How Do You Fight A War Called Madness?

A new commander arrives at a castle where he applies shock therapy to former soldiers suffering from mental illness.

An entirely male cast: Jason Miller, Stuart Wilson, Neville Brand, Robert Loggia, Joe Spinell.

A film about post-war trauma—in this case Vietnam—one of the greatest unknown films ever made, although it enjoys a loyal cult following. Now available in its longer director’s cut.

Packed with references to The Exorcist, also written and produced by Blatty.

Filmed in Hungary. The castle is Burg Eltz in Germany.

Successor: Shutter Island (2010, Martin Scorsese).

Part One: the opening sequence set to “St. Antone” by Denny Brooks. (The full film can be found on YouTube.)

1. Dr. Freud (Alan Arkin) in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976, directed by Herbert Ross)

Variation: Freudian :-)

The film in which Dr. Freud (Alan Arkin) treats Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson), brought to him by Dr. Watson (Robert Duvall) for cocaine addiction—hence the film’s title.

Based on the novel by Nicholas Meyer.

Laurence Olivier plays Professor Moriarty and Vanessa Redgrave is the romantic interest, Lola Deveraux.

A special, one-of-a-kind film that clearly influenced Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Predecessor: Freud had appeared on screen before, from John Huston’s 1962 biopic Freud, starring Montgomery Clift, to the less likely incarnation played by Jamie Elman (his co-star from California Dreaming!) in the film where Armand Assante portrays Nietzsche, When Nietzsche Wept (2007, Pinchas Perry).

TV promo.

Therapist on Duty: Alin Ludu Dumbravă

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The Fortune (1975)

The Fortune was then back in 1975 at the time not so fortunate...a good time to revisit now on Jack's 89th BB (Birthday Bash-I hope so...)

For Jack and Warren one of their most obscure films and the only one they did together except Beatty's own REDS...This was Beatty's film trying to greenlit Shampoo (1975) and the studio, Columbia Pictures, made that film in order to get this made and guess which film flopped bigtime...

Directed by Mike Nichols, (shot in summer 1974), it was a huge flop at the time of the relase, the guyz had a lot of fun tho but not also Nichols (!) and the film has way more fun values today !

Plot synopsis: Two bumbling hustlers in the 1920s attempt to gain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them, not even murder.

via my post from 2007, `You Don't know Jack! on DVD/ updated and in English now:

In The Fortune /Averea in Romanian/1975, Jack joins his buddiest friend Warren Beatty. What they thought they would reissue Some Like it Hot, became Beavis and Butt-head avant la lettre. Or Stan and Bran dadaists. Abbot and Costello meet the Stooges. Without Iggy. With Stockard Channing (nominated for a Golden Globe as a newcomer), who did not become the new Marilyn Monroe. Compared to something like Wedding Crashers, B & B (i.e. Nicholson and Beatty), are rocket scientists. Jack as Oscar plays as madcap as it gets,  Beatty as Nicky keeps it dandy,. It's an all-mus-go cynical farce, tango featured, bonus the moustaches. Plus the sexiest movie star chick since Chicken Little the cartoon. Director Mike Nichols had previously made, in 1970, with Jack and Art Garfunkel, Carnal Knowledge and would direct Jack again in Heartburn and Wolf. Nichols had such a bad experience that he didn't make another film for 8 years...:( 

Maybe Billy Wilder would've made it better and less chaotic ? Or Blake Edwards' more succesful ?

Written by Carole Eastman, Jack's buddy (wrote 4 films for him and Jerry Schatzberg's Puzzle of a Downfall Child), under the pen name Adrien Joyce. 

Shot by master John A. Alonzo (working with Jack after Chinatown, Black Sunday, Scarface). Widescreen 2.35.1, ANAMORPHIC. 

Exceptional production design by Richard Sylbert in his last film with Nichols, and with Jack via Chinatown. The villa apartment is the same as in Day of the Locust , 'cos it's the same set, Schlesinger's film is also 1975). 

Merry period music and adaptations by David Shire.  I Must Be Dreaming is sung by Stockard Channing. 

Jack's buddy, Scatman Crothers has a cameo as a fisherman, one of his many in Jack's films (The King of Marvin Gardens, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining). 

Another Nicholson great buddy, Harry Dean Stanton has a silent and uncredited cameo at 1h21. 

More trivia from wikipedia:

Because the start of principal photography on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was delayed, Jack Nicholson, who had worked with Nichols on Carnal Knowledge, was available for the role of Oscar Sullivan. During filming, the actor was forced to deal with two events that impacted his personal life. First, a fact checker working on a biographical piece for Time discovered that the woman Nicholson believed was his sister was actually his mother, and the woman who raised him was his grandmother. Then his close friend Cass Elliot (mama Cass!) died in her sleep, and rumors about the cause of her death circulated in the media. These two events, linked with the film's eventual failure, made The Fortune a subject that Nicholson never discussed in interviews and biographies.

3 1/2 stars out of 5 / 7 out of 10 !!! (raised it a half-star after that viewing in 2007).

LMA Jack Nicholson -Jack is 89 !!!

The one and only Jack Nicholson is Today 89 !!!

my Blog series on him here 

Retired from acting in 2013 though his Last Film was How Do You Know (2010), where he played a supporting role.

Sae him last on the big screen in the special screening of The Shining in IMAX in Porto. Planning for a long time a screening of Chinatown, now it might be the best time ;)

Happy Birthday Jack !!! Stay Healthy !!!

We finally re-saw an obscure slapstick comedy that was infamous at the time of its release, The Fortune (1975), Jack's only film with his buddy, Warren Beatty. 

RIP Diane Keaton

I was about to write RIP Annie Hall...

Diane Keaton was 79. Except Woody Allen's muse, friend (and girlfriend) and confidante (eight films together, from 1972's Play It Again Sam, ending with Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993), she was Al Pacino's Michael Corleone's wife Kay in the three Godfathers, from fiancee to divorcee (also his girlfriend in real life), and exceptionally radicalist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty's 1981's Reds. A very smart, intellectual. witty woman, personified best in Annie Hall (1977), character that used Keaton's manierisms, also her true family name is Hall, film that brought her an Oscar for best actress. She was also a feminist and an avant garde personality. And a great protograper (book Reservations). She never married and had two adopted kids. 

I think the last time I saw her was in Something's Gotta Give, the 2003 Nicholson weaker comedy...  She was in a lot of romantic comedies (Father of the Bride), heartfelt films  (The First Wives Club), dramas (Marvin's Room). But for me she will always be The Little Drummer Girl, in the excellent George Roy Hill film from 1984, based on the John le Carré book (not the 2018 series), where she plays a wannabe groupie terrorist, ideologically brainwashed and used, in a film that is more actualt today than Woody Allen's NY fantasies or the politics of Reds.

She as also great in Richard Brooks’  audacious drama with a sex twist, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).

Diane Hall / Keaton was also a director, most famously for Be Unstrung Heroes (1995), she also directed Belinda Carlisle's hit video Heaven is a Place on Earth. She also produced Gus Van Sant's Elephant. She wrote memoirs thrice: “Then Again” (2011), “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty” (2015) and “Brother and Sister” (2020).

 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI/ American Film Institute. 

Obit in Variety here. 

Tribute by Woody Allen here.

“If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton,” Allen remembered thinking upon first seeing her.

RIP Robert Towne

Considered the greatest American script, Chinatown (1974) was Robert Towne's masterpiece. He won an Oscar for it but Roman Polanski, the director, helped shaped the script and especially the downbeat ending.

Too bad they didn't do the third movie (Cloverleaf), but with the failure and fights over the sequel, The Two Jakes (2000), Towne and Jack Nicholson's friendship (who offered to direct!) had a huge fallout. They got over it eventually.

His great script of the early 70's were The Last Detail and Shampoo for Hal Ashby. He wrote uncredited scenes for Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather, The Missouri Breaks, Warren Beatty's films (he was also great friends with Beatty and later on with Tom Cruise, who hold him in high esteem). 

When they messed up his script for Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan (directed by  Hugh Hudson), so he signed the screen credit with the name of his dog (P.T. Vazak), and that name got nominated for an Oscar !!!!

He was considered the best script doctor in town and did great rewriting work on A list films for Big Bucks, and got to (co)write humdrum big budget High concept bonanzas like Mission: Impossible and Mission: Impossible 2 (The Chimera gimmick)  or troubled productions like Days of Thunder. for Simpson/Bruckheimer and Tony Scott. Also on Crimson Tide for Scott and the same producers  (dictated famously over the phone !!!). 

Towne also directed four films, with mixed results, from the sports-themed Personal Best (1982) to Tequila Sunrise (1988, what that menage a trois was about?), Without Limits (1998, another sports-themed flick) and Ask the Dust (2006, based on the John Fante novel, which he wanted to do since the early Seventies !), that was also his last work.

He started in Hollywood working for  Roger Corman. He wrote the Tomb of Ligia for Corman, on his series of Poe adaptations.

Bob Towne was 89. He was more like a Rock star in Hollywood than the reclusive screenwriter type. There won't be guys like him anymore, that's for sure...

Napoleon (2023)

 work in progress...or regress...

cos' so many asked me about this, and if i liked it, or is it good, and why this and that...

Well, as far as it goes, for me it was the biggest disappointment of 2023 (see my faved here).

Some expected this like the 2nd coming, I gave up on sir Rid some time ago (last cool one was The Counselor and that was 10 years ago...), I have huge reservations on Alien: Covenant which I appreciated then, as I did with the beginning of Raised by Wolves series, and tahn he killed it, he self-imploded his best films with adding crap to their coda-Blade Runner and Alien that is...I hope he won't f**k up the Gladiator thing too...well, which Gladiator, aha, aka The son of Maxxxximussss...

well, the main problem isn't dramaturgy as some say, or the timing (and I am very sure a 4 hour length won't improve it..) but the casting of  mr. Joaquin "joker" Phoenix as Nap B., in a cross between his Commodus (from 2000's Gladiator) and Joker (2019). An Emo Napoleon ? you got one....Napoleon is Afraid ;)

Ok, now 3 Oscar nods, for set, visual f/x and costumes...no biggie

I liked the music (by Martin Phipps, newcomer on Sir Rid's team) much better than on the last Ridley Scott films, and that was its best asset. 

No performances, no nothing. I started to write about it in Romanian and was kinda mean to it. made me see again WATERLOO (1970), which I saw as a kid on the big screen and was uber-impressed and I gotta acknowledge again that it's such a better film still. And Rod Steiger rulezzz, and he's the man.

also there's the Stanley Kubrick paradoxxx-because Waterloo was a flop Kubrick did not get to do his Napoleon. And that is a pity. Nap B. was to be played by Jack Nicholson. Yes. And they were supposed to shoot in Romania, 'cos we got em horses and costumes. Didn't happen. Kubrick did Brry Lyndon instead, giving Ryan O'Neal a life eternally. 

I have butto see the 5h30 restored cut to see of Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927).  They worked 30 years to redo that. And the original cut was 7 hours. So, even at 4 hours, a Scott Director's cut I guess it won't change the cue too much.

RIP Monte Hellman

Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting, China 9 Liberty 37...these are some of Monte Hellman films, cult classics today. The director died at age 91 on April 20 2021. He helped Quentin Tarantino produce his first feature, Reservoir Dogs. He started out as an editor for Roger Corman, whre he met Jack Nicholson whom he directed in his quirky anti-westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlind and in the war movies shot in Phillipines Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury.

I met him briefly after the screening of Two-Lane Blacktop in Cannes Claasics, I think it was in 2005. We took a picture together, it-s on my print screens somewhere. Last film in 2010, Road to Nowhere.

The Guardian here 

Joker-s

Peter Fonda RIP

Mr. Easy Rider went for a last ride, ...:(
Peter Fonda was 79, Easy Rider is 50 this year, and he was in Cannes Classics and at Cinema de la Plage presenting it. It won here when it was presented back in 1969. Missed him by 10 minutes :(
My DVD has Dennis Hopper's autograph on it, the film is still the bastion of counter-culture...-
Peter Fonda, Hollywood royalty as the son of Henry, was against it !  He was  "Born to be Wild". Wyatt (from Earp ?) aka Captain America, who expresses the remains of the American Dream:
"We Blew it"...

I 1st saw Peter as a kid in the sequel to Westword, Futureworld (1976, in Romania as Evadati din viitor), but later on I had the pleasure of seeing the essential Corman biker picure The Wild Angelas in The Trip, Race with the Devil, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, 92 in the Shade. Comeback with Ulee's Gold, Ocar nominated. The Limey, fun cameo bit on Escape from L.A., Mephistopheles in Ghost Rider
He directed The Hired Hand in 1971, a great and very little seen odd anti-western. He had a bit in The Last Movie, of his friend and sometimes fiend Dennis Hopper. His other friend was Warren Oates and they were in a lot of films together, and of course Jack Nicholson whose career was kickstarted by Easy Rider.

Brother of Hanoi Jane, father of Bridget. One of "the last of the only ones" ....

Milos Forman RIP

Friday 13th 2018. One of the greatests European directors, Master fireman chief Milos Forman taking off :( He has flown in another cuckoo's nest. He ws 86.
Last time I've seen him in the documentary on the making of the Man on the Moon, Jim and Andy, where he had maybe the toughest job of his career. 

one of my top films of my teenage age up to alltime best is One Flew Over The Cucoko's Nest. Then Amadeus. Then depends, his Czech films are great, funny, starirucal (Loves of a Blonde-1965, Fireman's Ball-1967). Same with his first American film -Taking Off-1971. One Flew was followed by Hair, Ragtime, Valmont, The People vs. Larry King, Goya's Ghosts-2006. Final film, back in the Czech rep. with his son, the musical comedy Dobre placená procházka/ A Walk Worthwhile, in 2009.
Goodnight, Milos....

Variety piece here 
-will do a retrospective of his films in may at Cinemateca Patria , Brasov !

Harry Dean Stanton RIP

Paris, Texas, Alien, Repo Man, Christine, Escape from New York, Cool Hand Luke, Wild at Heart. Over 100 films. Country troubadour. Heavy smoker. Jack's buddy, Coppola's friend, David Lynch's man. He was 91. And  in the new Twin Peaks.  Goodbye Harry Dean...

My Homage to HDS at  Cinemateca Patria in Brasov through October (all cult films on Tuesdays).
Harry Dean was made famous also by this song from 1989 by Debbie Harry: I Want That Man

                                          "I want to dance with Harry Dean
                                            Drive through Texas in a black limousine
                                           I want a piece of heaven 'fore I die"

Jack is 80 !!!

Mr.Jack Torrance, Jake Gittes, Melvin Udall, George Hanson, Randle P.McMurphy, colonel Jessup, Schmidt, The Passenger, The Joker,  and maybe soon Toni Erdmann ? oh yeah, Jack Nichoson is 80 to-day ! Happy Birthday Jack !!! Here's to ya -the hair of the dogs that bite me still !!!

la Cinemateca Patria Brasov am dat luna aceasta 8 filme cu Jack, marti miercuri si joia viit.mai sunt The Shining, The Pledge si The Fortune. 

Toni Erdmann -de la Cannes la Oscar la Gopo...

Astazi la ora 19.00 nu ratati TONI ERDMANN la Cinemateca Patria, ultima proiectie la Brasov. Daca nu a luat Oscarul pentru cel mai bun film strain, miine pronosticul meu e ca va primi Gopo-ul pentru cel mai bun film european. Go, Toni 
*i was mistaken, son of saul took the award, which was predictable surely but i still am Toni's fan !
#Tonierdmann

cronica mea -de fapt un text de promo, din zile si nopti Bv:

Țineți minte 2 cuvinte, Toni Erdmann. De ce? Pentru că e un nume pe care nu o să îl uiți ușor. Și e un nume inventat, dincolo de film, în film. Cu toții putem fi Toni Erdman, cu doi de N. Erdman ar putea fi printr-o traducere poetică „Omul pământului”, sau „Pământeanul”. Un soi de David Bowie în varianta upbeat a Omului care a căzut pe pământ (The Man Who Fell To Earth, 1976), pământul în speță fiind cel românesc. Toni e ca un extraterestru prin București dar se adaptează. La fel și cei doi actori geniali, Peter Simonischek și Sandra Hüller, Toni și fiica sa, Ines, secondați de conaționalii noștri, Vlad Ivanov, Victoria Cociaș, Alexandru Papadopol. Filmul a primit PREMIUL PRESEI INTERNAȚIONALE LA CANNES (FIPRESCI), și este propunerea Germaniei la Oscar (și părerea mea este că va câștiga), un film în care românii ies mai bine decât trebuie, prezentați de către regizoarea Maren Ade cu multă căldură, și ca un popor cu speranță (așa cum și suntem, atunci când nu ne pierdem răbdarea). Cuvântul cheie e: Umanitate. Și vom vedea și cea mai amuzantă folosire a unui costum de gorilă, de la John Landis încoace. Ultra-recomandat. La Cinemateca Patria, Toni Erdmann va veni luni, 14 noiembrie, ora 19:00. Voi veniți să îl întâlniți?

Alin Ludu Dumbravă

-critic de film, curator Cinemateca Patria-

* asta era in noiembrie, acum no Oscra but go Toni for Gopo :)

soon a major Paramount motion picture event strarring JACK NICOLSON and Kristen Wiig :)

Vilmos Zsigmond RIP

Welcome to 2016 :(
chiar azi cind boleam si colegii de bresala il sarbatoreau pe Vivi, al nostru VilmoȘ) s-a dus ultimul mare DOP artist al luminii al unei epoci fantastice, acum alaturi de prietenul sau Laszlo Kovacs, mort in 2007. Despre ei s-a facut un documentar, prezentat la Cannes, No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos (2008).

Vilmos Zsigmond avea 85 de ani. S-a nascut in Ungaria in 1930 (la Szeged), de unde a fugit, asemeni lui Laszlo, Peter Medak si multi altii, in urma revoltei din 1956. Primul film respectabil, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (as director of photography, 1971), apoi The Hired Hand. Din nou pentru Altman, The Long Goodbye.  Deliverance pentru John Boorman. Sperietoarea lui Jerry Schatzberg. Sugarland Express pentru Spielberg. A luat Oscarul pentru Intilniri de gradul trei, a filmat si Vinatorul de cerbi si Heaven's Gate pentru Michael Cimino,

 si patru filme de Brian De Palma  (incepind cu Obsession-1976, apoi Blow Out) cu care era prieten si cu care a impartit virtuozitatea cadrelor-plan extrem de dificile (v. tracking shotul de deschidere din Bonfire of Vanities, 1990),nominalizare la Oscar pentru The Black Dahlia. In ultima perioada a lucrat cu Woody Allen, 3filme: Melinda and Melinda, Cassandras Dream si You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

I haven't found a cinematographer I like as much Vilmos Zsigmond. His style is so natural and has so much more gravity and grittiness than this slick, glossy photographic style.
Dan Mindel-DOP

Cu Nicholson regizor la The Two Jacks,anterior l-a filmat in The Witches of Eastwick si apoi in The Crossing Guard.
Articol indiewire, 9 filme de Zsigmond, exemple de masterclass de lumini si umbre, aici 
Masterclass de la festivalul de la Toronto in 2014, 70 de minute no less, aici  sau:

Program Cinemateca Patria 17-23 noiembrie 2014

Program Cinemateca Patria, Brasov 17-23 noiembrie 2014
site: http://cinematecapatria.ro/
Luni 17 noiembrie
20:00 Seara Filmului European
Paris, Texas (SUA, Germania, 1984)
Regia: Wim Wenders
Cu: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell
Dramă
Durata: 147 min.
o capodopera vizuala si de mood, pe muzica superba a lui Ry Cooder. America vazuta de Wim Wenders, Palme d'Or la Cannes.
Aniversarea de 30 de ani
In memoriam L.M. Kit Carson (scenaristul filmului)

Marți 18 noiembrie
20:00 Seara filmului asiatic
Zatoichi (Japonia, 2003)
Regia Takeshi Kitano
Cu: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano
Acțiune, istoric, Durata: 116 min.
Premiul pentru cel mai bun film și premiul publicului la festivalul de la Sitges. Leul de Argint și premiul publicului la festivalul de la Veneția

Miercuri 19 noiembrie
20:00 Seara Doc And Roll
Pirații Rockului / Pirate Radio / The Boat That Rocked (Anglia, 2009)
Regia: Richard Curtis
Cu: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost
comedie, muzical
Durata: 129 min.
In memoriam Philip Seymour Hoffman
cronica mea aici

Joi 20 noiembrie
20:00 Comedy Classics
Marele Lebowski / The Big Lebowski (SUA, 1998)
Regia: Joel și Ethan Coen
Cu: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi
Comedie. Durata: 117 min.

Vineri 21 noiembrie

18:00 ALTFESTVAL
Intrarea gratuita
Back to The Future (SUA, 1985)
Regia: Robert Zemeckis
cu: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
comedie, SF
durata: 115 min.


20:00 Seara fantastică/ Film Cult
Fortăreața / The Keep (SUA, 1983)
Regia: Michael Mann
Cu: Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne
Thriller, fantastic
Durata: 96 min.
muzica de Tangerine Dream

22.00 ALTFESTIVAL
Intrarea gratuita
TRON: Legacy (2010)
Regia Joseph Kosinski
cu: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
SF, aventura
durata: 125 min.
muzica de Daft Punk
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Sâmbătă 22 noiembrie
11:00 Matineu copii
Ratatouille (1961)
Regia: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
Animație
Dublat în limba română
Durata: 111 min.

17:00 Golden Classics
Bulevardul amurgului / Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Regia: Billy Wilder
Cu: William Holden, Gloria Swanson
Dramă, film noir
Durata: 110 min.
3 premii Oscar

19.00: Mari regizori
Să prinzi un hoț /To Catch a Thief (SUA, 1955)
Regia: Alfred Hitchcock
Cu: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly
Thriller, romantic
Durata: 106 min.

21:00 http://altbrasov.org/
Intrarea gratuita
Minority Report (SUA, 2002)
Regia: Steven Spielberg
Cu: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Thriller, SF
Durata: 145 min.


Duminică 23 noiembrie
11:00 Matineu copii
În căutarea lui Nemo/ Finding Nemo (SUA, 2003)
Regia: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
Animație
Dublat in limba romana
Durata: 100 min.

17:00 Golden Classics
Miraj / Mirage (SUA, 1965)
Regia: Edward Dmytryk
Cu: Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau
Thriller
Durata: 108 min.

19:00 Seara de Oscar
Cartierul chinezesc/Chinatown (SUA, 1974)
Regia: Roman Polanski
Cu: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway
Drama, film noir
Durata: 130 min.
6 nominalizări și premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun scenariu

Program Cinemateca Patria 23-27 iulie 2014

Saptamana aceasta -23-27 iulie 2014-la Cinemateca Patria, Brasov !

Miercuri 23 iulie
20:00 Seara Filmului European
Totul despre mama mea / Todo Sobre Mi Madre (Spania, 1999)
Regia: Pedro Almodóvar
Cu: Cecilia Roth, Penélope Cruz
Dramă. Durata: 101 min.
Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun film străin

Joi 24 iulie
20:00 Comedy Classics
Sabrina (SUA, 1995)
Regia: Sydney Pollack
Cu: Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear
Comedie. Durata: 127 min.

Vineri 25 iulie
19:00: Doc and Roll
Searching For Sugar Man (Suedia, 2012)
Regia: Malik Bendjelloul
Cu: Rodriguez, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman
Documentar, biografic. Durata: 86 min
Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun documentar –2013
In memoriam Malik Bendjelloul

21:00 Dracula Film Festival Friends
Doamna din apă / Lady in the Water (SUA, 2006)
Regia: M. Night Shayamalan
Cu: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright
Thriller, fantastic. Durata: 110 min.

Simbata 26 iulie
11:00 Matineu copii
O poveste încâlcită / Tangled (SUA, 2010)
Animaţie. Durata: 100 min.
Dublat în limba română

17:00 Golden Classics
Funny Face (SUA, 1957)
Regia: Stanley Donen
Cu: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire
Muzical, comedie. Durata: 103 min.
LMA (La Multi Ani) Stanley Donen - 90 de ani !
4 nominalizari la Oscar !

19.00: Mari regizori
Omul care ştia prea multe / The Man Who Knew Too Much (SUA, 1956)
Regia: Alfred Hitchcock
Cu: James Stewart, Doris Day
Thriller, aventură. Durata: 120 min.
Premiul Oscar pentru cel mai bun cintec -Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) cu Doris Day !
LMA Doris Day (90 de ani, 3 aprilie !)


21:30 Film Cult
Snake Eyes (SUA, 1998)
Regia: Brian De Palma
Cu: Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino
Thriller. Durata: 99 min.

Duminica 27 iulie
11:00 Matineu copii
Peter Pan (SUA, 1953)
Animaţie. Durata: 77 min.
Dublat în limba română

17:00 Golden Classics
Bulevardul amurgului / Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Regia: Billy Wilder
Cu: William Holden, Gloria Swanson
Dramă, film noir. Durata: 110 min.
3 premii Oscar !

19:00 Seara de Oscar
Vorbe de alint / Terms of Endearment (SUA, 1983)
Dramă, comedie
Regia: James L. Brooks
Cu: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson (al doilea Oscar al lui Jack !!!)
Durata: 132 min. 5 premii Oscar !