Richard Attenborough
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Gandhi, Gladiator and Narrow Margin: Jim Hemphill’s Home Viewing Picks
To borrow a turn of phrase from Mark Twain, the rumors of physical media’s death have been greatly exaggerated, at least if the first half of 2020 is any indication – this year has been a bonanza for cinephiles who collect 4K and Blu-ray upgrades of important films. Independent labels like Indicator, Shout Factory, Kino Lorber and Criterion continue to release a steady stream of special editions, and recently the major studios == particularly Paramount and Warner Bros. — have become more aggressive than ever about capitalizing on their catalogs. The most impressive recent package that I’ve come across in […]
by Jim Hemphill on Jun 19, 2020 -
Watch: Richard Attenborough on Satyajit Ray
Here’s a video from a less-explored part of the late Richard Attenborough’s career. In 1977, Attenborough went to India to take a supporting part in the great Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players. In this rare fragment from a TV interview at the time, Attenborough marvels at the all-encompassing nature of Ray’s craft: “He writes the screenplay, he composes the music, he directs it, he operates the camera. He half-lights the set. Certainly he works with the lighting cameraman in such detail that any source of light or change that he wants he gets. He edits his own films, almost as […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 25, 2014 -
ROWAN JOFFE, “BRIGHTON ROCK”
Effortlessly gorgeous and consistently engrossing, Rowan Joffe’s feature debut is an update of Brighton Rock, an adaptation of the Graham Greene crime novel first filmed in 1947 by the Boulting Brothers and starring a very young Richard Attenborough in what turned out to be a breakthrough role of sorts. The earlier film, which has developed a minor cult for its odd mixture of lurid noir stylings and depiction of pre-war British coastal life, is set in the late ’30s, with Europe’s headlong leap into war providing the backdrop for the tale of the sociopathic young gangster Pinkie Brown and the ill-fated […]
by Brandon Harris on Aug 24, 2011
