Hollywood

The Oscars surrender to the golden age of protest

30 January 2016 9:00 am

Are we living in a golden age of protest? A bunch of aggrieved citizens only has to raise a murmur…

I hate to admit it, but Spike Lee is right about the Oscars and racism

23 January 2016 9:00 am

In 2017 it will be exactly 50 years since a dapper Sidney Poitier announced to Rod Steiger, in the excellent…

Orson Welles: ‘I started at the top and worked my way down’

Homage to awesome Welles on his centenary

12 December 2015 9:00 am

One day in May 1948 in the Frascati hills southeast of Rome, Orson Welles took his new secretary, Rita Ribolla,…

Why isn’t the Millennium Falcon called the Millennium Pigeon?

Darth Vader is dirty and it’s not just me that thinks so

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Star Wars taught Hollywood how to make children’s films for adults, says Tanya Gold

Tricycle’s Ben Hur is magnificent in its superficiality - a masterpiece of nothing

12 December 2015 9:00 am

It’s the target that makes the satire as well as the satirist. Is the subject powerful, active, relevant and menacing?…

Judy Garland as Esther Smith in Meet Me in St Louis (1944)

How Technicolor conquered cinema

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Peter Hoskin celebrates Technicolor’s 100th birthday

N.M. Gwynne’s diary: Old names worth dropping

17 October 2015 9:00 am

As I get older (and my 74th birthday is now close), I get deeper and deeper into nostalgia. I do…

Titanic: Orson Welles as Falstaff in ‘Chimes at Midnight’ (1966)

Don’t believe Orson Welles, says his biographer Simon Callow — especially when he calls himself a failure

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Orson Welles would have been 100 this month. When he died in 1985, aged 70, the wonder was that he…

Why Bette Davis loathed theatre

18 April 2015 9:00 am

It was called Frankly Speaking and by golly it was. The great screen actress Bette Davis was being interviewed by…

The Heckler: down with the actor-commentariat!

4 April 2015 9:00 am

I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…

No man ever wanted a dumb broad for a wife

21 March 2015 9:00 am

As I was flipping through some television garbage trying to induce sleep, I came upon an old western starring Kirk…

Staying power: Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in ‘Blade Runner: The Final Cut’

How Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic, Blade Runner, foresaw the way we live today

7 March 2015 9:00 am

How Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, made 33 years ago, foresaw the way we live today, by William Cook

The King Kong of the thriller: the phenomenal output of Edgar Wallace, once the world’s most popular author

31 January 2015 9:00 am

At the time of his death in 1932 Edgar Wallace had published some 200 books, 25 plays, 45 collections of…

‘Exceptionally good’: Alicia Vikander as Vera Brittain in ‘Testament of Youth’

Shirley Williams: Saving my mother from the scriptwriters

17 January 2015 9:00 am

Jasper Rees talks to Shirley Williams about the forthcoming screen portrayal of her mother

Birdman: plenty to see, little to feel

3 January 2015 9:00 am

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton as a one-time superhero movie star (just like Keaton himself), is audacious…

Too lovable: Bill Murray and Jaeden Lieberher in ‘St. Vincent’

St. Vincent: too much lovability and not enough roguishness from Bill Murray

6 December 2014 9:00 am

Is Bill Murray fit for sainthood? Certainly his fans have him figure as some sort of lesser divinity, maybe one…

The battle for decency has been lost

18 October 2014 9:00 am

An intelligent letter from a reader, Stanislas Yassukovich CBE, warms my heart. It’s nice to know there are others as…

The accidental wit and wisdom of Samuel Goldwyn

10 May 2014 9:00 am

For some of you younger readers the name Schmuel Gelbfisz will not ring a bell. Yet back in the Thirties…

The lefty liberals may be losing their hold over the arts world

26 April 2014 9:00 am

If you happen to be reading this column at breakfast, I’d recommend you skip to something more agreeable like Dear…

Joan Fontaine at home

Tea with Greta Garbo's decorator

19 April 2014 9:00 am

Many people write, or at least used to write, fan letters to their film favourites. Usually all they received in…

Henry Cavill starred in last year’s American blockbuster Man of Steel, based on the DC Comic hero, Superman

Want Hollywood's conventional wisdom? Then read Blockbusters

1 March 2014 9:00 am

You can learn a lot from this book. Latin America has a smaller economy than Europe. Big companies can spend…

Was Graham Greene right about Shirley Temple? 

22 February 2014 9:00 am

Shirley Temple, who died last week at the age of 85, was the most successful child film star in history.…

If Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn’t happy, what hope is there for us?

8 February 2014 9:00 am

Celebrity deaths have no decorum. From Elvis on his toilet to Whitney face down in her bathtub, their last moments…

Is Hollywood finally waking up to the talents of women? Nah

25 January 2014 9:00 am

Is Hollywood finally waking up to the talents of women directors? Peter Hoskin doubts it

Did Hollywood moguls really make a pact with Hitler?

23 November 2013 9:00 am

At the recent Austin Film Festival, at every ruminative panel or round-table discussion I attended, I slapped my copy of…