Sidney Lumet

Film Forum launches its Sidney Lumet retrospective tonight, kicking off its three-week series of the renowned 83-year-old director’s films with screenings of his 1976 TV news satire, Network. In all, 22 of Mr. Lumet’s 44 features will be shown, including his “canonical five-borough stories” like Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. Mr. Lumet will appear in person the evening on Monday, Feb. 11, for a discussion moderated by the film historian Foster Hirsch.  read more »

Sidney Lumet has inked a deal with Funky Buddha Group to finance his next two films, with an option for a third, according to Variety.

Under the deal, Lumet will move forward first on the prison breakout movie "Getting Out," based on his original script. Story centers on a man desperate to regain his freedom while entangled in deadly head games with his prison psychiatrist and the woman he desires.  read more »

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The box office was awakened this weekend from its fall slumber, as if it too had just been hit by the first cold spell of the season. American Gangster (No. 1) may have only grossed one and a half times as much as Bee Movie (No.2) nationally, but here in the city, it almost tripled the cartoon’s gross, averaging an astronomical $91,969 per theater. Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, broke all types of genre-specific records, en route to smashing the personal opening weekend records for both actors.

A thanks from Universal, who are distributing the film, is in order to the New York Post, who keep giving wood to organized crime and feeding the city’s unquenchable thirst for news about its dons. Like one of Frank Lucas’ finely tailored suits, this film was made for Manhattan.  read more »

Heartbleeders, both literally—ew!—and metaphorically—aw!—speaking, ruled over the weekend. Saw IV (No. 1) grossed over $32 million nationally and averaged over $53,000 at 8 theaters in the city, while Dan in the Real Life (No. 2) took in a respectable $12 million in national receipts, and did similarly respectable business in the city with an over $23,000 average on 8 screens.

Perhaps there is a little surprise that Steve Carell and his first foray into serious acting couldn’t pull stronger in the city, but the film did around the business its reviews suggested: above-average. A film that defied expectations, including those of the critics, was Bella (No. 9), a drama set in New York City surrounding a pregnant hostess and a mysterious chef, who seeks to help her. Apparently targeted at Christians and Latin-Americans by Roadside Attractions, the film, which was directed by first-timer Alejandro Gomez Monetverde, averaged a surprisingly strong $36,000 in the city. If the film can keep this up, it’ll be another example (See Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?) of how intelligent niche fare can be successful despite the opinions of the mainstream press or expensive publicity campaigns.  read more »

Just Shoot Me! Nihilism Crashes Lumet and Coen Bros.

BY ANDREW SARRIS

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and No Country for Old Men are well suited to our depressing times. But still!  read more »

Sidney Lumet, 83, cements his reputation as a world-class director with Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.  read more »

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and No Country for Old Men are well suited to our depressing times. But still!  read more »

My favorite still from a movie made in New York is not in this book.  read more »

If there were any justice in the movies, we still wouldn’t have to make the case for Louis Mal  read more »

Last week, Vin Diesel, in black from head to toe, greeted reporters at the New York premiere of Sidney Lumet’s film, Find Me Guilty.

“Hi, have you seen your look-a-like on American Idol?” asked a tall brunette, referring to shorn-headed, big-packaged contestant Chris Daughtry.

“No,” said Mr. Diesel.

“Do you watch the show?”

“I've never seen the show.”

“What do you like to watch?”

“What do I like to watch? Sidney Lumet movies. And lots of them.”

For his role as the comic-savant mobster Giacomo “Fat Jack” DiNorscio, Mr. Diesel packed on over 30 pounds. More interesting: with the aid of synthetic hair and some blush, Mr. Diesel also plays a Caucasian.

“It was all movie-making magic,” he said. “Sidney Lumet said I’m going to get the best make-up artist on the planet to do this.”

“Do you still have the hairpiece?” asked one reporter.

“What hairpiece? Mr. Diesel said.

Plumping for pay to nail a part in a movie is nothing new. But race—discounting the Wayans Brothers’ follies—is another story altogether.

“What's Vin Diesel's nationality, his ethnicity, his background?” asked the actor Andre Braugher at the premiere’s after-party at Gallagher’s Steakhouse in the theatre district. Guests wove though a forest of circular counters on iron stalks sprouting from the restaurant’s floor.

“It reminds us always of that omnipresent sort of convention in the film industry in which people with dark hair can play anything,” Mr. Braugher said of Mr. Diesel’s on-screen performance. “So, Al Pacino can play Italian or Cuban or Jewish or anything, and that's how movies are made and sold. That's the power of the box office. And once again, it's a testament to the power of the actor to win people over in terms of their portrayal. I mean, it is what it is; it's star power itself at the box office.”

Annabella Sciorra, whose big theatrical break came in 1991 when she played opposite Wesley Snipes in Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” plays Fat Jack’s ex-wife.

What does think of charges against HBO’s The Sopranos—that it is... marinara-face? Lasagna-face? (What is the Italian-American equivalent of blackface?) She is, after all, portraying a mobster’s wife.

“I'm just an actor, you know,” she said. “I don't really have issues with The Sopranos or with this film and I think the people that do need to do other things and be more active in their lives and they should go out and make the movies that they want to make about Italian-Americans that they think are interesting.”

—Nicholas Boston

The freak show that was 70’s New York both on- and off-screen can be summed up by the kicker of Pa  read more »

The freak show that was 70’s New York both on- and off-screen can be summed up by the kicker o  read more »