1.
25th Hour
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25th Hour is a 2002 American drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. 25th Hour opened to reviews, with several critics since having named it one of the best films of its decade. A canary yellow vintage Super Bee pulls up short on a New York City street, the animal was mauled in a dogfight so Monty intends to shoot him, but changes his mind after he looks it in the eye. Monty decides to take the dog to a nearby clinic instead, Monty is about to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs. He sits in a park with Doyle, the dog he rescued and he plans to meet childhood friends Frank Slaughtery and Jacob Elinsky at a club with his girlfriend Naturelle. Frank is a trader on Wall Street, Jacob is an introverted high school teacher with a crush on 17-year-old Mary. Monty visits his father, James, a firefighter and recovering alcoholic who owns a bar. Montys drug money helped James keep the bar, so a remorseful James sneaks a drink when Monty goes to the bathroom, finally, he turns on himself, revealing that he is actually angry for getting greedy and having not given up drug dealing before he was caught. In a flashback, Monty remembers the night he was arrested, detectives come to Montys apartment while hes still there. They find the drugs immediately and not after any real search, Monty sold drugs for Uncle Nikolai, a Russian mobster. Kostya tries to persuade Monty it was Naturelle who turned him in, since she knew where he hid his drugs, Monty refused to turn states evidence against Nikolai, but hes not sure what Nikolai will do at the club that night. Monty remembers how he met Naturelle when she was 18, hanging around his old school and he asks Frank to find out if it was Naturelle who betrayed him. Jacob sees Mary outside the club, so Monty invites her inside with them, Frank accuses Naturelle of living high on Montys money, not caring where it came from, but she reminds Frank that he knew as well and said nothing. The argument culminates in Franks insulting Naturelles ethnicity, followed by her slapping Frank, Jacob, meanwhile, finds the courage to kiss Mary, but both appear to be in shock afterwards and go their separate ways. Monty and Kostya go see Uncle Nikolai, who gives Monty advice on surviving in prison, Nikolai then reveals it was Kostya, not Naturelle, who betrayed Monty, and offers him a chance to kill Kostya in exchange for protecting his fathers bar. Monty refuses, reminding Nikolai that he had asked Monty to trust Kostya in the first place, Monty walks out, leaving Kostya to be killed by the Russian mobsters. Monty returns to his apartment and apologizes to Naturelle for mistrusting her, at the park, he transfers custody of Doyle to Jacob. Then he admits that he is terrified of being raped in prison, whereupon he asks Frank to brutally beat him, Frank refuses, so Monty deliberately provokes him
2.
Film poster
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A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and they normally contain an image with text. Todays posters often feature photographs of the main actors, prior to the 1990s, illustrations instead of photos were far more common. The text on film posters usually contains the title in large lettering. It may also include a tagline, the name of the director, names of characters, film posters are displayed inside and on the outside of movie theaters, and elsewhere on the street or in shops. The same images appear in the film exhibitors pressbook and may also be used on websites, DVD packaging, flyers, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater, by the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a film scene or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, as an economy measure, the NSS regularly recycled posters that were returned, sending them back out to be used again at another theater. During this time, a film could stay in circulation for several years and those posters which were not returned were often thrown away by the theater owner, but some found their way into the hands of collectors. Today there is a thriving market in film posters, some have become very valuable. The record price for a poster was set on November 15,2005 when $690,000 was paid for a poster of Fritz Langs 1927 film Metropolis from the Reel Poster Gallery in London. The 1931 Frankenstein six-sheet poster, of only one copy is known to exist, is considered to be the most valuable film poster in the world. Over the years, old Bollywood posters, especially with hand-painted art, have become collectors items, occasionally, rare film posters have been found being used as insulation in attics and walls. In 2011,33 film posters, including a Dracula Style F one-sheet, from 1930-1931 were discovered in an attic in Berwick, Pennsylvania, as a result of market demand, some of the more popular older film posters have been reproduced either under license or illegally. Although the artwork on reproductions is the same as originals, reproductions can often be distinguished by size, printing quality, several websites on the Internet offer authentication tests to distinguish originals from reproductions. Original film posters distributed to theaters and other venues by the movie studios are never sold directly to the public. However, most modern posters are produced in quantities and often become available for purchase by collectors indirectly through various secondary markets such as eBay. Accordingly, most modern posters are not as valuable, however some recent posters, such as the recalled Pulp Fiction Lucky Strike U. S. one sheet poster, are quite rare
3.
Howard Terpning
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Howard Terpning is an American painter and illustrator best known for his paintings of Native Americans. Terpning was born in Oak Park, Illinois and his mother was an interior decorator, and his father worked for the railroad. He grew up in the Midwest living in Iowa, Missouri, as a boy he liked to draw and knew by the age of seven that he wanted to be an artist. At age 15, he became fascinated with the West and Native Americans when he spent the summer camping and fishing with a cousin near Durango, when he turned 17, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served from 1945 through 1946. He was stationed in China for nine months, after leaving the Marines he enrolled at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in their two-year commercial art program using the G. I. To further his study he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago for six months where he honed his drawing and painting skills. After art school a family friend introduced Terpning to Haddon Sundblom, based on the recommendation and the strength of Terpnings drawings, Sundblom hired Terpning to work at his Chicago studio as an apprentice for $35 per week. Initially, Terpning ran errands, cut mats, built crates, after about a year and a half he began to work on his own commissions. In 1955, he moved to a Milwaukee studio where he stayed for three years before relocating to New York where he was hired by a major Chicago studio, by 1962, he was working as a freelance artist using an agent to facilitate the business side of his craft. As a result, Terpning was able to work from his home studio eliminating the long commute into NYC, in addition to illustrating for magazines Terpning completed over 80 movie posters starting with The Guns of Navarone in 1961. Other examples include Cleopatra, Doctor Zhivago, The Sound of Music, The Sand Pebbles, in 1967 in the midst of his commercial art career Terpning left his home in Connecticut and headed to Vietnam as a civilian combat artist. He was invited by the Marine Corps to document the war by living with the Marines for one month, after two weeks of training he wound up in Da Nang, South Vietnam, with camera and sketch pad going out on patrols with combat troops. Of the experience Terpning stated he was changed by the experience. Upon his return home he created six paintings which are now at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, around 1974, Terpning began to tire of commercial work and decided to follow his interest in the American West and Plains Indians. Consequently, he began to transition into fine art by creating paintings, the first paintings sold for $2,000 to $2,500. After three years, he left Connecticut and the art world and moved to Arizona to devote himself entirely to painting the American West. Within two years he was elected to both the National Academy of Western Art and the Cowboy Artists of America, in the 22 years he was an active member of the CAA, Terpning earned 42 awards for his work. In 1985, Terpning was honored with a retrospective at the Gilcrease Museum with 38 original works on display and his work has also been displayed in Beijing, China, and the Grand Palais in Paris
4.
Henri Verneuil
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Henri Verneuil, born Ashot Malakian, was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. According to one obituary, For exactly 40 years, the prolific Verneuil made movies as mainstream, in his best period - the 1950s and 1960s - he delivered films in the tradition of quality so despised by the Nouvelle Vague. Many of them proved excellent vehicles for old-timers Jean Gabin and Fernandel, Verneuil was born Ashot Malakian to Armenian parents in Rodosto, East Thrace, Turkey. In 1924, when Ashot was a child his family fled to Marseille in France. Verneuil entered the Ecole Nationale dArts et Metiers in Aix-en-Provence in 1942, after graduation, he worked as a journalist, then became editor of Horizon Armenian magazine. In 1947, Verneuil managed to convince the established European film actor Fernandel to appear in his first film, in 1951 he directed his first feature, the black comedy La Table Aux Crevés. His second film, Forbidden Fruit, based on a Georges Simenon novel, was even more acclaimed, later he also directed other movie stars including Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, Claudia Cardinale, Yves Montand and Michèle Morgan. Verneuil has filmed almost all the figures of French cinema, with the exception of Bourvil. After the American experience, in 1969 Verneuil found France and he was awarded a César in 1996 and he was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. He died at Bagnolet, a suburb of Paris, in 2002, the opening of the seventh annual Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan paid tribute to Verneuil. His son, television director Patrick Malakian, who reclaimed the name of his ancestors, received the posthumous award
5.
Anthony Quinn
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Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-born American actor, painter and writer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, for Viva Zapata. in 1952, Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca on April 21,1915 in Chihuahua, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution to Manuela Nellie and Francisco Frank Quinn. Francisco Quinn was born in Mexico, to an Irish immigrant father from County Cork, Frank Quinn rode with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, then later moved to the East Los Angeles neighborhood of City Terrace and became an assistant cameraman at a movie studio. In Quinns autobiography, The Original Sin, A Self-portrait by Anthony Quinn, he denied being the son of an Irish adventurer, when he was six years old, Quinn attended a Catholic church. At age eleven, however, he joined the Pentecostals in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, for a time he played in the churchs band and was an apprentice preacher with the renowned evangelist. Quinn grew up first in El Paso, Texas, and later the Boyle Heights, tucson High School in Arizona, many years later, awarded him an honorary high school diploma. As a young man, Quinn boxed professionally to earn money, then studied art and architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, at Wrights Arizona residence and his Wisconsin studio, when Quinn mentioned that he was drawn to acting, Wright encouraged him. Quinn said he had been offered $800 per week by a film studio, Wright replied, Take it, youll never make that much with me. During a 1999 interview on the show Private Screenings with Robert Osborne, after a short time performing on the stage, Quinn launched his film career performing character roles in the 1936 films Parole and The Milky Way. He played ethnic villains in Paramount films such as Dangerous to Know and Road to Morocco, and played a more sympathetic Crazy Horse in They Died with Their Boots On with Errol Flynn. By 1947, he had appeared in more than fifty films and had played Indians, Mafia dons, Hawaiian chiefs, Filipino freedom-fighters, Chinese guerrillas, and Arab sheiks and he returned to the theater, playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. In 1947, he became a citizen of the United States. He came back to Hollywood in the early 1950s, specializing in tough roles and he was cast in a series of B-adventures such as Mask of the Avenger. His big break came from playing opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazans Viva Zapata, Quinns performance as Zapatas brother won Quinn an Oscar while Brando lost the Oscar for Best Actor to Gary Cooper in High Noon. Quinn was the first Mexican-American to win an Academy Award, Quinn won his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of painter Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnellis Lust for Life. The following year, he received an Oscar nomination for his part in George Cukors Wild Is the Wind and he starred in The Savage Innocents 1959 as Inuk, an Eskimo who finds himself caught between two clashing cultures. As the decade ended, Quinn allowed his age to show and his physique filled out, his hair grayed, and his once smooth, swarthy face weathered and became more rugged. He played a Greek resistance fighter in The Guns of Navarone, a boxer in Requiem for a Heavyweight
6.
Virna Lisi
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Virna Pieralisi, better known as Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife, Not With My Wife You Dont, Beyond Good and Evil, for the 1994 film La Reine Margot, she won Best Actress at Cannes and the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. Ancona-born Lisi began her career in her teens. Discovered in Paris by two Neapolitan producers, Antonio Ferrigno and Ettore Pesce, she debuted in La corda dacciaio, initially, she did musical films, like E Napoli canta and the successful Questa è la vita. Nonetheless, her beauty was more valued than her talent, as seen in Le diciottenni, yet she filled demanding roles, particularly in La donna del giorno, Eva, and the spectacle Romolo e Remo. In the late 1950s, Lisi did theater at Piccolo Teatro di Milano in I giacobini by Federico Zardi under the direction of Giorgio Strehler, during the 1960s, Lisi did comedies and participated in television dramas that were widely viewed in Italy. Lisi also promoted a brand on television with a slogan that would become a catchphrase among Italians. She garnered attention for a photo of her shaving her face appeared on the March 1965 cover of Esquire magazine. To overcome her typecasting playing seductresses, Lisi sought new types of roles, in those years, she participated in Italian productions, in Casanova 70 and Le bambole, Arabella, and Le dolci signore. Lisi also starred in The Birds, the Bees and the Italians which shared the Palme dOr at Cannes that year, in the early 1970s, she took a temporary hiatus from acting to spend more time with her husband Franco Pesci and their son, Corrado. Nonetheless, Lisis career underwent a renaissance with a number of projects, including Al di là del bene e del male, Ernesto, and La cicala. For the film La Reine Margot, Lisis portrayal of Catherine de Medici won her both the César and Cannes Film Festival awards, along with a Silver Ribbon for Best supporting Actress, in 2002, Lisi starred in Il più bel giorno della mia vita. Virna Lisi then participated in many sitcoms and TV series and her last movie was in the Italian comedy-drama Latin Lover in 2014, shortly before her death. On 18 December 2014, Lisi died of cancer in Rome at age 78, a Brazilian rock band named Virna Lisi is named after her. The 1980s Argentinian band Sumo made a song for her, the singers brother is the actor Andrea Prodan, who appeared with her in the movie I ragazzi di via Panisperna
7.
Georges Delerue
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Georges Delerue was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film awards, including an Academy Award for A Little Romance. The French newspaper Le Figaro named him the Mozart of cinema, Delerue was the first composer to win three consecutive César Awards for Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Love on the Run, and The Last Metro. Georges Delerue was named Commander of Arts and Letters, one of Frances highest honours, Georges Delerue was born 12 March 1925 in Roubaix, France to Georges Delerue and Marie Lhoest. He was raised in a household, his grandfather led an amateur chorale group and his mother sang. By the age of fourteen he was playing clarinet at the music conservatory. In 1940 he was forced to abandon his studies at the Turgot Institute in order to work at a factory to support his family. He continued playing clarinet with bands, eventually transitioning to piano under the instruction of Madame Picavet-Bacquart. He studied Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Grieg, following a long convalescence after being diagnosed with scoliosis, Georges decided to become a composer. In 1945, following his studies at the Roubaix conservatory, Delerue was accepted into the Conservatoire de Paris, to help support himself, he took jobs playing at dances, baptisms, marriages, and funerals—even performing jazz in the piano bars near the Paris Opera. In 1947 he received a mention for the Rome Prize. That year at the Theater Festival of Avignon, Delerue conducted a performance of Scheherazade, in the 1949 Rome Prize competition, he won the First Second Grand Prize, and the First Prize for Composition. He began writing music during the late 1940s, including for the Théâtre National Populaire, Comédie-Française. He also became friends with Maurice Jarre and Pierre Boulez, by the early 1950s Delerue was composing music for short films and writing theatrical music for the Théâtre Babylone and the Opéra Comique. In 1952 he began directing the orchestra of the Club dEssai for French National Radio and Television, in 1954 he wrote his first compositions for historical spectacles of light and sound, Lisieux and The Liberation of Paris. In 1955 he composed his Concert Symphony for Piano and Orchestra, in 1959 he composed his first score for a feature film, Le bel âge. He composed the music for Flemming Flindts ballet, Enetime, based on Ionescos play, during his 42 years career he put his talent to the service of nearly 200 feature movies,125 short ones,70 TV films and 35 TV serials. The soundtrack for war docudrama by Pierre Schoendoerffer, Diên Biên Phu, was one of the notable works
8.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
