Word: film
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Even Motown's Berry Gordy delved into sensationalism with "Lady Sings The Blues" (1972), a film loosely based on Holiday's 1956 autobiography of the same title. In the movie, Diana Ross (who sings the songs in the film herself, blasphemy of the highest degree as it further robs the audience of the true essence of Lady Day) portrays Billie as a strung-out heroin addict who throws her talent away even though she has the support of a loving husband (Billy Dee Williams) and thousands of appreciative fans...
Like one of those ominously quiet sequences in a Hitchcock film, Beattie's low-key style tends to create the tension of expectation. For example: "Corky pushed the door open and turned and looked at Wayne, sitting on the step, holding a Schlitz. It was the last drink he would have before his life changed." But all that happens is that Wayne gets arrested on a false charge of possessing cocaine. We never do find out what became of him except, in an epilogue, that he is now living in Mexico City...
...Coming to America. Buchwald went to see the picture while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, and was struck by its similarity to his proposal. Murphy, who received screen credit as the creator of the story, testified in a written deposition last month that he conceived the idea for the film in the wake of a painful romantic breakup. But Judge Harvey Schneider ruled that the parallels were substantial and that Paramount and Murphy had known about Buchwald's original story, although he stressed that his verdict was in no way meant to "disparage the creative talent" of Murphy...
...result of this get-smart approach, public libraries no longer content themselves with walk-in trade off the street. Today they combine the hustle of a small business and the concern of a community center with facilities tailored to the tastes and needs of their users. Video rentals attract film buffs. Data bases, software and fax machines bring in budding entrepreneurs. Language and literacy classes entice the swelling number of urban immigrants. While parents browse, youngsters are entertained by puppet shows and storytellers. "Name any need and the library can help you," says Brenda Johnson, assistant director for Washington...
Story of Women, named best foreign-language film by three critics' groups, is an eloquent example of Simenon cinema -- the kind of movie that, in the manner of Georges Simenon's novels, treats melodramatic subjects with clinical dispassion. Chabrol never coddles viewers; he trusts them to sort out the evidence. His Marie is too complicated to be either a monster or a savior. And Huppert's beautifully deadpan performance finds the ideal emblem for Marie, a vessel empty of everything but human contradictions...