Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #271: Leslie Caron
Born July 1, 1931 in Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, the daughter of a Franco-American dancer and a French chemist, Leslie Caron was groomed by her mother to be a ballet dancer from childhood. She was discovered by Gene Kelly in the Roland Petit Company “Ballet des Champs Elysées” who cast her as his co-star in An American…
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The DVD Report #447
New This Week Winner of this year’s Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy and now nominated for seven Academy Awards, Ridley Scott’s The Martian is an entertaining film that also provides Oscar nominee Matt Damon with his first nomination for Best Actor since 1997’s Good Will Hunting for which he won an Oscar for…
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Oscar Profile #270: Claude Rains
Born November 10, 1989 in London, England, (William) Claude Rains was the son of British stage actor Fred Rains. Following in his father’s footsteps, he made his acting debut at the age of 11 in Nell of Old Drury. Growing up in the theatre, he also worked behind the scenes, graduating from page boy to…
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The DVD Report #446
New This Week Roger Deakins has been nominated for an Oscar twelve times without winning. Perhaps the greatest living cinematographer, he may well receive his thirteenth nomination and possible first win for Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, a visual masterpiece that ranks right up there with Deakins’ work on Fargo, Skyfall, Unbroken and many others. The film…
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Oscar Profile #269: Robert Zemeckis
Born May 14, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, Robert Zemeckis was educated at the University of Southern California where his fellow students included writing partner Bob Gale and future producer/director George Lucas. While at USC, Zemeckis won a Student Academy Award for A Field of Honor, an urban action film set to Elmer Bernstein’s score for…
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The DVD Report #445
New This Week Harold Lloyd was one of the biggest stars of the silent era, but is not as well known today as his contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, primarily because he owned his own films and refused to release them in the later years of his life whereas Chaplin and Keaton’s films have…
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Oscar Profile #268: Haskell Wexler
Born February 26, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, Haskell Wexler was one of four children of Simon and Lottie Wexler. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley, he served a stint with the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. He briefly made industrial films in Chicago before becoming an assistant cameraman in 1947. His…
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The DVD Report #444
New This Week 2015 marked the 80th presentation of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. It would have been the 81st presentation of the awards that began in 1935 except that there was a newspaper strike that began on December 8, 1962 and did not end until March 31, 1963, a total of 114…
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Oscar Profile #267: Frank Sinatra
Born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Francis Albert (Frank) Sinatra would become the most popular singer of his time, if not all time. His voice has been heard on movie soundtracks from 1941 to the present day, fifteen years after his death, and is likely to continue to be heard as long as…
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The DVD Report #443
New This Week This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) awards, which are usually voted on the first Monday of January of the following year. The society was co-founded in the New York City apartment of Hollis Alpert (Saturday Review) by Alpert, Pauline Kael (New Yorker), Joseph Morgenstern…
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Oscar Profile #266: Frank Capra
Born Francisco Rosario Capra on May 18, 1897 in Bisacquino, Sicily and raised in Los Angeles from the age of six, the future President of both AMPAS (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and the DGA (Directors Guild of America) would become a naturalized American citizen in 1920 at which time he legally…
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The DVD Report #442
New This Week It seems as though the year just began, but now it’s time to sum it all up and give kudos to the year’s best DVD releases. With so few films being released solely on standard DVD, I’ve dispensed with naming the best of a pitiful lot. Instead I’m focusing on films released…
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Oscar Profile #265: Charlotte Rampling
Born February 5, 1946 to painter Isabelle Anne and Olympic gold medalist, army officer, colonel and NATO commander Godfrey Lionel Rampling, (Tessa) Charlotte Rampling would emerge as one of the most distinguished actresses of our time. Educated in France and England, Rampling was a model before becoming an actress in 1965’s The Kanck…and How to…
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The DVD Report #441
New This Week Every year there are films that we would like to see get some Oscar love that somehow manage to get overlooked. This week I’d like to focus on ten of this year’s films, already released on Blu-ray and DVD, some of which have fallen off the radar, that I’d like to see…
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Oscar Profile #264: James Earl Jones
Born January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi to actor Robert Earl Jones and his wife, James Earl Jones suffered from a childhood stutter that he studied dramatics to overcome. Writing and reading poetry in class helped him overcome the disability that he says he still has despite his reputation as the possessor of one of…
