Christopher Plummer is the traveling showman as steampunk fantasist in this carny sideshow of a Faust tale, costarring Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
Category: movies about theater
‘Topsy-Turvy’ – Gilbert and Sullivan reborn on Criterion Channel
Set in the world of London theater in the mid-1880s, Topsy-Turvy (1999) tackles the creative partnership between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, the reigning kings of light operetta, at a turning in their career. Their work has become repetitive, their latest show a disappointment, and the partnership is under strain as composer Sullivan (Allan […]
Laurence Olivier is ‘The Entertainer’ on HBO Max
Laurence Olivier broke with the grand roles and theatrical poise of previous parts to play seedy music hall entertainer Archie Rice in John Osborne’s play The Entertainer. He reprised the role for Tony Richardson’s screen adaptation The Entertainer (1960), earning an Oscar nomination for his performance. Olivier gives his all as the gap tooth vaudevillian […]
‘The Illusionist’ on Criterion Channel
With The Illusionist (France, 2010), animator Sylvain Chomet (of the delirious The Triplets of Belleville) transforms an unproduced script by they great French auteur Jacques Tati (Mon Oncle) into a tender tale of a French magician and a Scottish girl in the theater-folk society of London as the old world of stage performance gives way […]
What to stream: Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Chicago 7’ on Netflix, Heidi Schrek’s ‘Constitution’ on Amazon
Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Now, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … Courtroom drama meets political theater in “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (2020, not rated), Aaron Sorkin’s dramatization of the real-life trial of the protest leaders at the 1968 Democratic National Convention charged […]
‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ on Criterion Channel
Olivier Assayas wrote this drama about a veteran actress facing a transition in her career after Juliette Binoche, arguably France’s greatest and certainly most ambitious actress working today, challenged him to write a film centered on women. It was a friendly challenge—she had already starred in two films he wrote for director André Téchiné and […]
‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ – James Cagney is George M. Cohan on VOD and Blu-ray/DVD
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) – James Cagney won his only Academy Award playing George M. Cohan in the rousing bio-pic directed by Michael Curtiz, who was the top director at Warner Bros. and arguably the studio’s most versatile filmmaker at the time. Cagney was a song-and-dance man before he found fame as a movie tough […]