My Courses

Last year, at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, I saw a newly restored version of “Tony Arzenta” (called “No Way Out” in the U.S.), a 1973 Italian thriller from director Duccio Tessari, although even in that sophisticated audience few had heard of or cared about the director. We were there, several hundred of…

Phil Donahue, who passed away on August 18 at the age of 88, did not introduce the television talk show, of course—Joe Franklin is credited with beginning the first one back in 1951, and this was followed a couple of years later by the first iteration of “The Tonight Show” with Steve Allen hosting. What…

As the founder of Glass Eye Pix, writer-director Larry Fessenden has spent nearly four decades carving out a fiercely independent niche in American cinema—not only for himself, but also for the array of talented artists whose careers he’s supported through his storied New York film studio.  Since “No Telling,” his first feature on film, Fessenden…

We are incredibly proud to present an excerpt from Carrie Rickey‘s new book about the life and work of Agnès Varda, one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the form. The official synopsis is below, followed by the excerpt. The book is available now, and we’ll have a review soon. The first major…

Buying a cash-strapped, more losses than wins Welsh football team might seem like an impulsive decision by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney if they had not demonstrated repeatedly that they are two of the savviest and most entrepreneurial forces in Hollywood. Reynolds and McElhenney may not have known much about football (soccer in the US),…