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2022: A Year in Books
I read Kate Atkinson’s first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, back in the late 1990s; and finally returned to her this year with Shrines of Gaiety, a Roaring Twenties romp loosely inspired by...
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To Save and Project: ‘The Letter’ at MoMA
A new digital restoration of Jeanne Eagels’ only surviving talking picture, The Letter (1929) will be screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York on January 13, 2023, at 5 pm. This...
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2022: A Year in Film and TV
My favourite film of 2022 was one of the first I saw. Licorice Pizza is so light and joyful, with newcomers Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman perfectly cast as the goofy young lovers in the San Fernando...
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That Magic Click: Douglas Kirkland and Marilyn
Photo by Tim Mantoani Douglas Morley Kirkland was born in 1934 in Toronto, and moved to the small town of Fort Erie, Ontario with his parents when he was three years old. His father, Morley, was a...
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‘La Lollo’ in New York: When Gina Lollobrigida Met Marilyn
Gina Lollobrigida, an icon of Italian cinema and one of the great post-war sex symbols, died aged 95 on January 16, 2023. She was born Luigia Lollobrigida in 1927, the second of four daughters, in the...
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Zimbelism: Marilyn’s ‘Momento’ on 52nd and Lexington
George S. Zimbel, the photographer who documented the shooting of Marilyn Monroe’s most famous movie scene, has died aged 93. He was born to Jewish immigrant parents in Woburn, Massachusetts in 1929,...
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Stella Stevens: An Adventurous Blonde
Actress Stella Stevens died in Los Angeles on Friday, February 17th, 2023, aged 84. She was born Estelle Eggleston in Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1938. Her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when she...
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‘Scandal’ Revisited as New Exhibition Opens in Leicester
Scandal, the 1989 movie dramatising the Profumo Affair, is showing at the Phoenix Leicester at 7:30 pm this Friday, March 3rd, introduced by producer Stephen Woolley with an onstage Q&A. Whatever...
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Walter Mirisch: ‘Some Like It Hot’ Producer Dies at 101
Walter Mirisch, producer of Some Like It Hot, has died aged 101. He was born in New York in 1921. His father, Max, was a tailor born in Krakow, and his mother was the daughter of Polish and Hungarian...
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Scandal ’63 Revisited: Symposium in Leicester
A symposium for Scandal ’63 Revisited will be held at Leicester Gallery on Friday, April 14th, ahead of the exhibition’s last day on Saturday. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance here....
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‘Man, Woman and Sin’ and ‘A View From the Bridge’ at Cinecon
Man, Woman and Sin – the final silent film starring Jeanne Eagels, and her only Hollywood production – enjoyed a rare big-screen outing during the Labour Day weekend, as part of the 59th Cinecon...
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Sixty Years Later: Scandal ’63 Revisited
“In Britain at the start of the 1960s, Victorian values are still mainstream. There is a rich ruling class who are better than everybody else, women are mostly thought of as the property of the men...
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2023: A Year in Film
Adapted from David Grann’s history of the Osage murders, Killers of the Flower Moon was – for me at least – the cinematic event of 2023. With authoritative performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert...
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‘Man, Woman and Sin’ at MoMA
Jeanne Eagels with John Gilbert and Marc McDermott in Man, Woman and Sin Jeanne Eagels’ last silent movie – and her only Hollywood shoot – Man, Woman and Sin (1927) is showing in a restored print as...
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Darryl F. Zanuck: The Gentleman Preferred Blondes
Bernard F. Dick, a professor of English and communication at Fairleigh-Dickson University in New Jersey, has published many titles on the classical era of Hollywood film-making, covering a wide range...
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Cinema Revival: ‘The Letter’ in Columbus, Ohio
The first big-screen adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter is showing in a new 35mm restoration – from the sole surviving nitrate print – at 2:30 pm tomorrow, March 2, at the Wexner Centre for...
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Children of Hollywood: Marilyn and Diana Herbert
Actress Diana Herbert, who met Marilyn Monroe on the set of her first movie, died aged 95 in Los Angeles on May 3, 2023. She was born in Beverly Hills on Christmas Day, 1928. Her father, F. Hugh...
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Rain in May: Joan in Bristol, and Jeanne in Oz
A midday screening of Lewis Milestone’s Rain (1932) heads up a double bill at the Bristol Aquarium cinema this Saturday, May 11. The event boasts an introduction by programmer James Harrison of Film...
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Rosalina Neri: From ‘La Marilyn Italiana’ to Milanese Diva
Rosalina Neri, the singer and actress known as ‘la Marilyn Italiana’ (or ‘Marilina’) has died aged 96 after a short illness. She was born in Arcisate in 1927, in the Varese region of Lombardy. Her...
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2024: A Year in Film
In a year when I was more often drawn to world cinema, there was at least one notable exception. Steve McQueen’s Blitz packs more action in two hours than some Hollywood blockbusters, and despite a...
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