By John H. Foote Some of the finest films ever created are celebrating their birthdays this year. It is exactly 100 years since Cecil B. DeMille took to the deserts outside of California when Hollywood was still in its infancy to make the first version of The Ten Commandments (1923). Two films in one, the…
By John H. Foote (****) In theatres In 2006, at TIFF I made my way to the screening of Sarah Polley’s Away From Her, because I admired Polley’s work as an actress, had seen one of her short films and liked it, and I adored Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie. I came out of the…
By John H. Foote In a prolific career that has seen basically a film a year, sometimes two since 1977, Woody Allen’s next film, the 50th of his career, will be his last. The 87-year-old director has stated he plans to write a novel or two in retirement, and we hope a second autobiography. Allen,…
By John H. Foote After the Method swept through New York, film actors began studying the system and the results were apparent on screen. More than ever, acting was at a peak for realism from actors such as Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward, and Paul Newman. James Dean claimed to be hardcore Method but was instead…
By John H. Foote After two years of a virtual film festival, meaning most of we critics saw the films via the internet in the comforts of our offices or homes, TIFF is gearing up for the festival to be as it always has been. The Scotiabank Theatre will again be humming with screenings and…
By John H. Foote Never say to me John Wayne could not act. Ever. The great film historian John Milius once said, “I think John Wayne in The Searchers is the greatest performance in the history of cinema.” It certainly is one of them. Wayne believed in planting his feet and telling the truth, that…
By John H. Foote Ray Liotta, 67, died in his sleep on Wednesday. The actor was not known to have been ill, and the passing has come as a terrible shock to his family and friends. Liotta shot to stardom in the eighties with a superb performance as the ex-convict Charlie in Jonathan Demme’s Something…
By John H. Foote The art of acting evolved slowly throughout the 1940s, but in 1947, it was forever altered when Marlon Brando stepped onto the New York stage as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. His gritty, explosive performance changed the very fabric of acting more than it had been changed in 30…
By John H. Foote When the film critics assembled to choose the finest films of the 80s, no one was surprised to see Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), the searing drama about middle-weight boxer Jake La Motta. The film had earned rave reviews, won a slew of critic’s awards, and awards all round for actor…
By John H. Foote The art of film acting was evolving in the 30s and did not reach its peak until the 50s with the explosive arrival of Marlon Brando. With the introduction of sound, Hollywood began looting the Broadway stage for actors with effective voices such as Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart, elevating…