5 notable Jonathan Demme films
Jonathan Demme, the eclectic, ever enthusiastic filmmaker behind the Oscar winners "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia," and the director of one of the most seminal concert films ever made, the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense," has died. He was 73.
MELVIN AND HOWARD: Among the most memorable films about Howard Hughes, this 1980 release starred Jason Robards as the mysterious billionaire and Paul le Mat as Melvin Dummar, the struggling everyman who encounters Hughes in the Nevada desert. Mary Steenburgen won an Oscar for playing Lynda, Melvin's first wife.
5 notable films by the late Jonathan Demme
STOP MAKING SENSE: One of the most acclaimed and innovative rock documentaries, this 1984 film drew upon state of the art digital technology as it drew upon a series of Talking Heads concerts at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Highlights included classic performances of "Burning Down the House," ''Psycho Killer" and "Take Me to the River," among others.
SOMETHING WILD: A joyous screwball comedy from 1986 and another story of strangers bonding. Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels starred in a road adventure featuring shifting identities, unpaid checks and a breakthrough, terrifying performance by a pre-"Goodfellas" Ray Liotta as Griffith's ex-convict husband.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS: Once again, strangers meet and the results are unforgettable. The Oscar-winning adaptation of Thomas Harris' grisly novel stars Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling and, in one of the all-time roles, Anthony Hopkins as the flesh-eating Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The film swept all five major Academy Awards at the 1992 ceremony: film, director, screenplay, actor and actress.
PHILADELPHIA: Released in 1993 and one of the first major productions about AIDS, "Philadelphia" stars Oscar-winner Tom Hanks as a corporate lawyer and closeted gay who becomes fatally ill and contends with the fears and phobias that follow. The soundtrack was almost as notable as the story, featuring Neil Young's Oscar-nominated title song and Bruce Springsteen's brooding, Oscar-winning "Streets of Philadelphia."
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More