A bronze wall plaque inside Loews’ Lincoln Square (where I saw Celine Song’s PastLives in the late afternoon) commemorates the late Loews’ Capitol theatre (B’way at 50th or 51st). Built in 1919, the 5000-seater gave up the ghost in September 1968. For some reason the plaque says it was torn down in ‘67. 2001: A SpaceOdyssey opened at the Capitol on 4.3.68.
Harrison Ford is profiled in the current Esquire. Written by Ryan D'Agostino, the longish article is titled "Harrison Ford Has Stories to Tell." About halfway through Ford articulates a feeling about the emotional, spiritual and even psychological nourishment that the best films provide.
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The censored version of the 1971 Oscar-winner is currently streaming all over (Criterion Channel, TCM, iTunes) and was shown at Santa Monica’s Aero theatre on 5.12.23.
Three days ago (Saturday, 6.3) I posted about the censoring of a six-second sequence in William Freidkin’s TheFrenchConnection, apparently by rights holder Disney over concerns about Gene Hackman’s ruthless cop character, Popeye Doyle, using the N-word. The next day I refreshed and summarized same (6.4).
This is obviously a hugedeal, and yet no columnist or critic has said a DAMN THING since last Saturday. Are they afraid of complaining about the deleting of an ugly word in a classic film? Most likely, yeah. Are they holding themselves in check because they feel obliged to be “goodGermans” inthewokesenseofthatterm? You betcha.
There’s also the possibility that they don’t want to give me any credit for raising a stink, and that personal animus means more to them than calling out woke censorship as it affects what is arguably the finest urban-cop thriller ever made.
Until this morning (6.6), that is, when Breitbart’s John Nolte postedapieceaboutsame. Draw your own conclusions. Mine, as noted, is that others (including certain filmmakers) are too chicken to say anything. That or their pettiness knows no bounds.
Paul Stanley and Harry Kleiner's Cry Tough (United Artists) opened in August 1959, when steamy, semi-nude sex scenes were all but absent from mainstream American films.
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Finessed synopsis: "Fanny (Lou de Laage) and Jean (Melvil Poupaud) are an ideal couple: financially flush and professionally fulfilled, they live in a magnificent apartment in [one of] the high-end districts of Paris and seem to be as in love as [they were on] the first day they met.
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According to “The Little Mermaid is Disney Propaganda,” a 6.5 Unherd article by Kat Rosenfeld, old-fashioned, shamefully un-woke Disney cartoons and animated features on Disney + “come affixed with a hectoring title card that you cannot fast forward through.”
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,” it reads. “These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
“This Oscar-winning film, initially released in 1971, includes negative depictions and/or mistreatments of African Americans. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
Why didn’t Disney simply choose this option? Nobody would’ve squawked if they had.