Author: Peter J Patrick
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The DVD Report #582
New This Week The House of Tomorrow is an unusual coming-of-age film about two rebellious Minnesota teenagers who form a punk rock duo. One, played by Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hugo), is a naïve kid who was home schooled in Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller’s domed house of tomorrow by his former hippie…
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Oscar Profile #405: Kim Hunter
Born November 12, 1922 in Detroit, Michigan to an engineer and his wife, a former concert pianist, Janet Cole was a painfully shy child who studied drama to overcome her shyness. The actress made her stage debut as Penny in Penny Wise in Miami in 1939. She was discovered by an RKO talent agent in…
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The DVD Report #581
New This Week On Chesil Beach is about a 1962 marriage that lasted six hours, the events that led up to it, the events of the afternoon and evening following the wedding, and its aftermath. It’s from an acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan (Atonement) who also wrote the screenplay. Directed by Dominic Cooke (TV’s The…
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Oscar Profile #404: Brenda Blethyn
Born February 20, 1946 in Kent, England to an engineer and his wife, Brenda Anne Bottle was the youngest of nine children. Married to Alan Blethyn in 1966, she worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper for the British Rail Company until her divorce in 1973 when she enrolled in the Guildford School of Acting in…
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The DVD Report #580
New This Week Tully is the third collaboration of writer Diablo Cody and director Ivan Reitman. Their initial collaboration, 2007’s Juno earned Cody an Oscar and Reitman an Oscar nomination along with star Ellen Page and the film itself. Their second collaboration, 2011’s Young Adult earned star Charlize Theron a Golden Globe nomination. Theron is…
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Oscar Profile #403: David Niven
Born March 1, 1910 in London, English (James) David (Graham) Niven was the youngest of four children, his father being killed in World War I during the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. His mother married Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt, believed to be Niven’s biological father, in 1917. Raised in private schools, Niven graduated from Royal Military…
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The DVD Report #579
New This Week A Matter of Life and Death AKA Stairway to Heaven opened in New York on Christmas Day 1946 to a rave review from Bosley Crowther in the New York Times who placed the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger film among his ten best of the year the following Sunday while dismissing Frank Capra’s similarly…
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Oscar Profile #402: Jim Sheridan
Born February 6, 1949 in Dublin, Ireland, Jim Sheridan was one of three sons of Anna and Peter Sheridan, Sr., owners of a lodging house. Anna also worked at a hotel and Peter as a railway clerk to support their young family. The future writer-producer-director was educated in a Christian Brothers School. In 1969, he…
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The DVD Report #578
New This Week Isle of Dogs has already won several awards including one for Wes Anderson as Best Director at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The six-time Oscar nominee might well win his first Oscar for Best Animated Feature if not Best Picture, Director, and/or Screenplay as well at the next Academy Awards, the film…
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Oscar Profile #401: Vittorio De Sica
Born July 7, 1901 in Lazio, Italy, Vittorio de Sica grew up in Sicily where his first job was as an office clerk in support of his poor family. Drawn to acting, he made his film debut as the title character as a boy in The Clemenceau Affair in 1917. He did not make another…
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The DVD Report #577
New This Week Lean on Pete won Charlie Plummer the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress at last year’s Venice Film Festival. Although the film received strong support at the 2017 Telluride and Toronto film festivals among numerous other venues, it was not released theatrically until April of this year. Directed by…
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Oscar Profile #400: Elizabeth Patterson
Born November 22, 1974 in Savannah, Tennessee, Elizabeth Patterson was the daughter of a confederate soldier who became a judge. Educated at Martin College with postgraduate work at Columbia Institute in Tennessee, Patterson’s parents sent her to Europe hoping the experience would diminish her interest in becoming an actress, but it only intensified her determination.…
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The DVD Report #576
New This Week Dietrich and von Sternberg in Hollywood is a cause for celebration. Beautifully restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive labs, the collection is comprised of the six films von Sternberg made with Dietrich in Hollywood following their initial collaboration on the 1930’s The Blue Angel, which was filmed in Berlin. The…
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Oscar Profile #399: Richard Harris
Born October 1, 1930 to a farming family in Limerick, Ireland, Richard Harris was bound for a career in rugby when a teenage bout with tuberculosis steered him in the direction of the theatre instead. After honing his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Harris appeared in several stage and TV…
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The DVD Report #575
New This Week The Curse of the Cat People is not so much a sequel to 1942’s Cat People as it is its own special little film. Producer Val Lewton was given the title of this 1944 film by RKO’s front office and had no choice but to use it. It didn’t stop him, however,…
