[amazon_link asins=’B07894H9GD’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dbe33730-255c-11e8-9667-937e700d0446′]Winner of the 1993 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, I first saw Belle Époque in a 1994 college film class. While the movie also served as my introduction to Penelope Cruz, I remember being far…
Released in the spring of 1971, Summer of ’42 is screenwriter Herman Raucher’s vividly realized memories of the summer on Nantucket Island when he lost his virginity. A coming-of-age story, it’s a trip back to another time, when the world…
[amazon_link asins=’B077Y6RBZP’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b71f3743-1bef-11e8-a8a1-078e5a668a21′]Billionaire Howard Hughes wanted to make a new kind of Western–one that was sexy and did away with all the old genre clichés. Taking the directorial reigns himself (with some uncredited help from Howard Hawks),…
[amazon_link asins=’B077Y3QTS5′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6dfcf6d6-110a-11e8-b7a8-8de5a9e57dc2′]Set in South Africa when Apartheid was the rule of law, The Wilby Conspiracy stars Sidney Poitier as a revolutionary, and Michael Caine as a mining engineer, on the run from the South African military…
[amazon_link asins=’B078J5WDKC’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e8e651e3-0f87-11e8-8813-4d74d61cb7da’]A modest success at the time of its release, The Hanging Tree (1959) is now largely considered a superior entry into the then fading western genre. It also marked one of the finest performances of…
[amazon_link asins=’B0779SPXYG’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ec7955e4-fd38-11e7-b353-e10293c428a1′]Released in 1968, For Love of Ivy marked the first time in mainstream film that African Americans were shown in a mature, romantic relationship. The late sixties ushered in a whole new generation of filmmakers…
[amazon_link asins=’B0774NRYZT’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6f5d6d0a-f489-11e7-b9c0-fd53800d61c8′]I didn’t hate The Mountain Between Us the way some viewers and critics appeared to. Instead, it registered with me as one of those predictable survival films that so often waste good acting talent. Nothing…
[amazon_link asins=’B0767FCYDW’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a2baee8e-e757-11e7-a754-331df426d35a’]Released in 2014, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar ranks as one of the great contemporary science fiction films. In my 2015 release of the Blu-ray, I wrote that seeing it “at home on a television will not…
[amazon_link asins=’B0779934JW’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6fde3618-e4fa-11e7-9e14-37e9fbd710f0′]Adapted from a short story by Jack Ritchie, writer/actress Elaine May made her directorial debut with A New Leaf, a dark romantic comedy co-starring Walter Matthau (The Odd Couple, The Taking of Pelham One Two…
[amazon_link asins=’B075DSLWGF’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’moviegazett03-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c9c00a53-e364-11e7-8e9b-15bbfdc4f8dd’]Created by Whitney Blake (best known for her role as Dorothy Baxter, on the 1960’s sitcom Hazel) and Allan Mannings, One Day at a Time was developed and produced by Norman Lear. Debuting on December…