Sacha Baron Cohen Set for Freddie Mercury Biopic
LONDON (AP) – “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen has been signed up to star in a movie about flamboyant rock star Freddie Mercury.
Producers say Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen,” is working on a screenplay about the frontman of the band Queen, who died of AIDS in 1994.
The as-yet-untitled film will climax with Queen’s barnstorming appearance at the 1985 Live Aid concert in London.
The announcement was made by GK Films, which is producing with Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.
Queen guitarist Brian May says the band supports the project. Production is due to begin next year.
Baron Cohen’s comic characters include wannabe rapper Ali G, Kazakh journalist Borat and Austrian fashionista Bruno. His latest film is Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo Cabret.”
Report: Affleck Admits Joaquin Phoenix Doc a Fake
NEW YORK (AP) – Casey Affleck is admitting to what many critics suspected all along: His documentary about Joaquin Phoenix was a fake.
The film, “I’m Still Here,” followed Phoenix as he announced he was retiring from acting and launching a rap career.
The “Walk the Line” star grew doughy and disheveled, and he famously made an awkward appearance on David Letterman’s show.
Affleck, who’s Phoenix’s brother-in-law and the film’s director, now tells The New York Times that the whole thing was an act, calling it “the performance of his career.” Affleck says he even faked home movies of Phoenix as a child.
But he insists he never meant to trick anyone, and rather was dabbling in “gonzo filmmaking.”
Some critics called it a fascinating look at celebrity. Others assumed it was all staged.
Mo. Democrat Keeps TV Ad Despite Fox News lawsuit
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate is pushing forward with a television ad despite being sued by the Fox News Network for copyright infringement.
A spokesman for Robin Carnahan defended the ad Thursday, saying the campaign believes it complies with the law. The ad will remain on TV, though it no longer appears on the campaign website.
The ad includes a clip from a 2006 interview by Fox News journalist Christopher Wallace with Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, who is Carnahan’s opponent in the Senate race. In it, Wallace cites Blunt’s ties to lobbyists and asks whether he’s the right man to lead a reform effort in Congress.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Fox News claims misuse of Wallace’s image. A network attorney didn’t immediately return a message Thursday.
Warner Bros., Sony Offer More 3-D Blu-Ray MoviesLOS ANGELES (AP) – Warner Bros. says it will release six 3-D movies on Blu-ray ahead of the holidays, while Sony Pictures announced one more. That alleviates concerns that studios have tied up too many movies in exclusive release deals with television manufacturers.
Warner Bros. said Thursday that it will release “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “Clash of the Titans,” “The Polar Express,” and three Imax documentaries in November. Sony Pictures will release “Open Season.”
U.K. research firm Screen Digest said Wednesday that more than 70 percent of the 25 3-D titles available for the home this year would be tied to buying a specific brand of 3-D TV.
Now there will be at least 32 3-D movies available, with 19 tied to the purchase of a specific TV.
TV Producer Says He Prayed As He Was Held Hostage
CHICAGO (AP) – A TV producer who was held hostage at Discovery Communications’ headquarters near Washington earlier this month says he walked into the building’s lobby and saw a man holding a gun to the guard behind the desk.
On Thursday’s episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Jim McNulty said he prayed as he was held hostage before a calm came over him and he thought, “What do I need to do?” McNulty also says the gunman questioned why McNulty chose to have children.
Authorities have said police shot 43-year-old James Lee dead as his three captives were preparing to escape. The hostages included McNulty, Discovery employee Chris Wood and a security guard.
This is Winfrey’s final season before she launches the Oprah Winfrey Network as a joint venture with Discovery.
Film Director Sues Ex-wife in NYC over PaternityNEW YORK (AP) – Horror film director Andrew Douglas claims his ex-wife tricked him into believing he had fathered her daughter.
Douglas says in a lawsuit he wants Ameena Meer to pay him nearly $700,000 – the amount he says he paid in child support over 17 years.
According to court papers filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court, Douglas says he began to suspect he wasn’t the child’s father last summer after the girl asked him about his blood type. He says a paternity test confirmed that.
Meer says Douglas’ claim is not true. She is a writer who heads an organization that supports a proposed mosque near ground zero.
The two married in 1992, and Meer gave birth the following year. The couple later split up.
Douglas’ movies include the remake of the 1979 film “The Amityville Horror.”
Slew of 3-D TV Movies For The Home? Not So FastRyan Nakashima, Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – If you’re thinking of buying a 3-D television set this year based on the belief that you’ll be able to purchase a lot of the 3-D movies that have hit theaters in the past few years, think again.
U.K. research firm Screen Digest says 70 percent of the 25 3-D movies expected to be available this holiday season will be tied to the purchase of a TV from a certain manufacturer.
For example, a Sony 3-D TV buyer won’t immediately be able to watch DreamWorks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon” because that movie will be tied to the purchase of a set from Samsung Electronics Co.
Screen Digest says that so far, only three Hollywood movies, including The Walt Disney Co.’s “A Christmas Carol,” and three documentaries will be available on retail shelves without being tied to a specific TV brand.
The firm presented its findings at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Although buyers of 3-D TVs can appr eciate that bundled movies will allow them to try out their new TV immediately, a lack of broadly available titles could hinder the adoption of 3-D watching in the home, said Helen Davis Jayalath, an analyst with Screen Digest.
“The exclusive bundling deals can’t go on for too long, or it’s going to be a problem,” Davis Jayalath said after her presentation. “Hopefully these licensing deals will expire soon.”
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., said it will take “another year or two” before enough homes have 3-D TV sets for it to make sense to release 3-D Blu-ray movies without such bundles.
“For us, we felt that the greatest opportunity is to partner with Samsung,” he said in an interview.
Although 3-D movies have already given a lift to revenue from theaters, it could take a while for 3-D TVs to really take hold. Screen Digest said by 2014, about 28 percent of TV-owning households in the United States will have a 3-D TV.
Katzenberg said he expected 3 million 3-D TVs would be sold in North America this year.
Taylor Swift Partners With Retailer for New CDNEW YORK (AP) – Taylor Swift is the latest act to offer bonus album content to an exclusive retailer.
The country superstar is aligning herself with Target Corp. for the release of her latest album, “Speak Now.” The store will offer fans three additional songs, remixed tunes and video content when the album is released Oct. 25.
Swift says she tries to give fans bonuses whenever she can, so she is happy to oblige with her third album.
“Speak Now” is the follow-up to her Grammy-winning, multiplatinum CD “Fearless.” The first single, “Mine,” has hit the country chart’s top 20. She debuted the song “Innocent” – about last year’s MTV Video Music Awards debacle – at this year’s VMAs.
Redford’s ‘Conspirator’ Lands A DistributorTORONTO (AP) – Robert Redford’s Abraham Lincoln assassination drama “The Conspirator” has been picked up for theatrical distribution by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.
The two companies aim for a spring 2011 release for “The Conspirator,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The $20 million production directed by Redford was one of the biggest films to enter the festival without a distributor already in place.
“The Conspirator” stars Robin Wright as Mary Surratt, a boarding-house owner tried as an accomplice in the assassination by John Wilkes Booth. James McAvoy plays a Union Civil War hero reluctantly forced to defend her.
The film co-stars Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Alexis Bledel, Tom Wilkinson and Justin Long.
Ice Cream Ad Banned As “Offensive” to CatholicsLONDON (AP) – Britain’s advertising watchdog has banned an Italian ice cream ad featuring a pregnant nun, saying it causes offense to Catholics.
The magazine ad for ice cream maker Antonio Federici showed the nun eating a tub of ice cream, with text that read: “Immaculately conceived … Ice cream is our religion.”
The Advertising Standards Authority said Wednesday it has received 10 complaints from magazine readers who said the ad was offensive to Christians. The agency said imagery used to illustrate immaculate conception was likely to be seen as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics.
The Italian company said the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream and the ad aimed to gently satirize religion.
Warner Music Shakes Up Warner Bros. Executives
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Warner Music Group Corp. on Tuesday announced a major shake-up at its flagship label, Warner Bros. Records.
Chairman and chief executive Tom Whalley is leaving the company after a nine-year run and is being replaced by an executive team led by top-selling producer Rob Cavallo.
Cavallo, who brought artists including Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day to Warner Bros., becomes chairman of the label after serving as chief creative officer of all of Warner Music.
Todd Moscowitz, who now heads Warner’s independent label group and Asylum Records, becomes co-president and chief executive officer.
Atlantic Records general manager Livia Tortella becomes co-president and chief operating officer. Tortella brings with her a track record of growing digital sales at Atlantic, which became the first label to have greater digital revenues than physical sales in the U.S. in 2008.
Diarmuid Quinn is stepping down from his position as chi ef operating officer.
Spike Lee to Direct John Legend, Roots WebcastJake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Spike Lee will direct a live webcast of a concert featuring John Legend and the Roots.
The concert, to be held in New York on Sept. 23, is the second part of “Unstaged,” a live concert series presented by American Express Co. The first was an Arcade Fire concert, whose webcast in August from Madison Square Garden was directed by Terry Gilliam.
The live stream will be webcast on Google Inc.-owned YouTube, via the music video website Vevo. Various interactive elements will also be offered, including an option for viewers to select their camera view.
“It’s not necessarily a Spike Lee joint,” Lee said. “It’s a John Legend and the Roots joint.”
Lee most recently released his second New Orleans documentary, “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,” but several of his recent films have focused on live performance. “Kobe Doin’ Work” documented Kobe Bryant in a single NBA game, and “Passing Strange” filmed the Broadway musica l.
“I like doing stuff live,” Lee said. “Especially with someone like Kobe. I can’t stop the game. You got to be ready for almost anything. We can’t stop this concert, either. Going to have to go with the flow.”
Lee has also previously documented performances by John Leguizamo, Luciano Pavarotti and the comedians of “The Original Kings of Comedy.”
“It’s not about my stamp,” says Lee. “You want to see the stamp of John Leguizamo, you want to see the stamp of Stew with ‘Passing Strangers,’ the stamp of Pavarotti. I’m just there to help facilitate that.”
American Express is planning three more concerts for “Unstaged” later this year, but hasn’t yet announced those acts. Legend and the Roots will be performing two days after the release of their album “Wake Up!”
Lee acknowledges he’s never watched a concert online, but says he’ll do his “due diligence” before the show. One thing he’s not planning to do is shoot “8 million close-ups,” which he says i s the tendency in television.
“I’ll tell you this: I’m not shooting for people to look at on their iPhones,” the director said. “At least a 15-inch computer screen. For me, it’s criminal to watch a movie on your phone.”
NYC Exhibit Captures Photog’s Vision of the City
Ula Ilnytzky
NEW YORK (AP) – A new exhibition of photographs by Alfred Stieglitz offers a view of New York City at the turn of the 20th century through the eyes of one of the world’s most celebrated photographers.
“Alfred Stieglitz New York” at the Seaport Museum New York features 39 vintage photographs, many shot from the windows of his midtown-Manhattan apartment and galleries. It opens on Wednesday and runs through Jan. 19, 2011.
It is the first time these works are being shown together since 1932 when Stieglitz showed them at An American Place, a gallery he operated from 1929 until his death in 1946, said the exhibition curator Bonnie Yochelson.
The photographs cover the periods from 1893 to 1916 and 1930 to 1935, contrasting Stieglitz’s images of Old New York with later images of the city as it emerged as a great metropolis.
Stieglitz, whose second wife was the famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe, was a strong proponent of photography as an art for m and founded the Photo-Secession group to promote photography “as a distinctive medium of individual expression.”
His first gallery, “291,” which he ran from 1905 to 1917, also introduced to the United States such European painters as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse and Auguste Rodin.
Assembled from the collections of about a dozen major American museums and individuals, the Seaport Museum photographs include Stieglitz’s iconic print of the Flatiron building near Madison Square Park. The soft focus, misty print was taken on a snowy night, and like many of his images, it has the quality of a painting.
Another print, “The Terminal,” depicts another wintry scene of a horse-drawn omnibus on a slushy street in front of the old Post Office in the city’s financial district.
The exhibition features three platinum prints, taken in 1915 from the back window of “291.”
“My reading of these pictures is that they’re in a certain way self-portraits , that he’s always looking for ways to express his inner state of mind … and when he settled on these window views – which were not of famous buildings like the Flatiron – that was really when he found his New York, his way of expressing the city,” Yochelson said.
The three images show the same view – townhouses and commercial loft buildings – at different times of day and in different seasons.
Highlighting the museum’s seaport theme, the exhibition features “The Ferry,” a moody, dark picture of a ferry boat near Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan, one of a series of harbor pictures, all taken by Stieglitz in 1910.
A separate gallery contains a small presentation of Stieglitz’s lantern slides, the precursor of the old-fashioned slide carousel, that never have been shown before. The slides, scanned by the museum from originals, were used by members of the Camera Club of New York, of which Stieglitz was a member, to show each other their latest work.
“Stieglitz loved the medium, he thought it was beautiful to have these translucent projected images,” Yochelson said.
The third and last gallery of the exhibition is called “The Face of New York.” It contrasts Stieglitz’s personal vision with a variety of material by other artists to show the wide variety of imagery of New York that was developing during his time.
“It’s meant to give this sort of high temple of art feeling, which was Stieglitz’s view of himself and his work, with the kind of hustle-bustle dynamic imagery and feeling of the city which was showing up by others,” Yochelson said.
Schwimmer Gets Serious with Rape Tale ‘Trust’David Germain, Movie Writer
TORONTO (AP) – David Schwimmer may be known as lovable goofball Ross on “Friends,” yet he has gone back to his dramatic roots for his latest directing project on the searing rape story “Trust.”
The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, chronicles a nightmare scenario for a couple (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) after they discover the nice boy their 14-year-old daughter, Annie (Liana Liberato), met on a Web chat room actually is a grown man who lures her to a motel room for sex.
Schwimmer has been developing the story for seven years, inspired by his work with the Rape Foundation in Santa Monica, California. He hopes to land the film in theaters as a cautionary tale to parents about the dangers children face online, where sexual predators can stalk victims with anonymity.
In talking with families of victims and FBI agents investigating such cases, Schwimmer found that the men preying on children online often are husbands and fathers themselves.
“A lot of these guys are married, have families. It’s more frightening than the predator that’s usually depicted in films, which is this weird, greasy loner that lives alone or with mom,” Schwimmer said. “The fact is that they are teachers, they are coaches, they’re priests, they’re professionals, they’re pediatricians.”
In the film, Annie’s stalker uses her passion for volleyball to gain her trust, pretending at first that he’s a 16-year-old volleyball player, then stringing her along as he gradually confesses he is 20 and later 25. By the time they meet, Annie has become so smitten that she is able to overlook the fact that her online boyfriend is old enough to be her father.
Owen found the story devastating, particularly since he has two young daughters himself, the oldest recently venturing online when she signed up for Facebook.
“I found it deeply upsetting, just as an idea. I think something like that happening to your daughter is like a death of some kind,” Owen said. “I don’t know how anybody would ever really, properly recover from something like that.”
Schwimmer, 43, who directed episodes of “Friends” and other television projects, made his big-screen filmmaking debut with the 2007 comedy “Run, Fatboy, Run.”
While his role as perpetually lovesick Ross on “Friends” made him a star and his best-known big-screen role is providing the voice of the nervous giraffe in the “Madagascar” animated movies, Schwimmer started out as a serious actor.
“I was actually surprised that I was cast in a sitcom, because all of my experience at university and in the theater company I started in Chicago was all drama,” Schwimmer said. “I’d never really done comedy, so it was just ironic to me that now I’m known as that funny guy. But you know, I have no complaints. I had a great time.”
Actors, Union Settle Suit Over Foreign RoyaltiesAnthony McCartney, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Attorneys for the Screen Actors Guild and the actor who played Eddie Haskell on “Leave It to Beaver” have reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit over the distribution of millions of dollars in foreign royalties to actors.
Attorneys for the union and actor Ken Osmond filed the agreement for a judge’s approval on Monday.
SAG has already paid out millions in royalties to the performers, but the agreement spells out how both remaining and future royalties will be distributed.
The lawsuit is the last of three cases filed against unions representing tens of thousands of actors, writers and directors over royalties that have been generated in Europe since the 1980s. The payments were created to compensate the performers for video rentals, blank media and, in some countries, cable retransmissions.
The settlement requires an independent audit of payments that have already been made and sets out disclosure guidelines f or how SAG handles the royalties. The union is not admitting any wrongdoing, according to the settlement.
Neville Johnson, the attorney who represented Osmond and plaintiffs in the other cases, said the actor and former Los Angeles police officer was proud of the outcome. Osmond sued SAG in September 2007.
“This is the end of a long saga to get all of the creative talent adequately paid by these large unions,” Johnson said.
“Screen Actors Guild is proud of its efforts to claim and distribute foreign royalties on behalf of our members,” said SAG Deputy National Executive Director and General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “We have distributed nearly $8.5 million – more than half of the total funds collected since the inception of SAG’s foreign royalties program.”
Royalties had been paid to more than 70,000 actors and it was “money that would otherwise have gone unclaimed and been lost to them forever,” he said.
Johnson credited Osmond – who played the mischievous Haskell on “Leave It to Beaver” in the 1950s and 1960s TV series – with pressing the issue.
“It takes a lot of guts for anybody to stand up and challenge a powerful organization, and Ken had the integrity and the guts to do so and all actors are in his debt,” Johnson said.
The agreement requires the approval of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl J. West, a judge who sits on a special court that specializes in hearing complex litigation matters such as class action lawsuits. His preliminary approval will likely come at a hearing Sept. 20, but it will not go into effect later this year.
The Hollywood Reporter Going Weekly From Daily in NovemberLOS ANGELES (AP) – The Hollywood Reporter is going weekly.
E5 Global Media LLC, the company that bought the trade publication from The Nielsen Co. last December, confirmed the change will happen in early November.
The Hollywood Reporter has been struggling with falling circulation amid stiff competition from blogs that cover the entertainment industry.
The newsstand price of the glossy magazine will be $5.99, about double the $2.99 charged for the current issues, which come out five times per week.
Annual subscriptions will cost $249, down from about $300 now.
The switch was reported earlier in The New York Times.
The change is part of an overhaul under way since former US Weekly editor-in-chief Janice Min was hired as its editorial director in May.
Filmmaker Waters: Let’s Ban Heterosexual Divorce
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) – John Waters, the filmmaker and actor known for such movies as “Hairspray” and “Cry-Baby,” has an idea for how gays and lesbians can push for marriage equality.
His suggestion at the North Louisiana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Shreveport? “I think we should just try to make heterosexual divorce illegal.”
Waters was the celebrity guest at the festival, which honored him Sunday with a cocktail reception and two showings of his 1981 film “Polyester.”
While at the festival, Waters – wearing a sport coat with red and neon-pink curves – signed copies of his autobiography “Role Models” and his 2004 album “A John Waters Christmas.”
‘Slumdog’ Director Boyle Returns for ‘127 Hours’David Germain, Movie Writer
TORONTO (AP) – “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle has delivered another grim crowd-pleaser to film festival crowds.
Boyle’s survival tale “127 Hours,” starring James Franco in the real-life story of a wilderness adventurer trapped by a fallen boulder, earned an explosive standing ovation Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The premiere marked Boyle’s return to the Toronto festival, where “Slumdog Millionaire” won the audience award as favorite film two years ago on its way to box-office success and best-picture triumph at the Academy Awards.
Boyle thanked the audience for the lift the festival gave “Slumdog Millionaire” and said he and his crew scrambled to make the deadline for a return trip to Toronto with “127 Hours,” which finished shooting just last May.
“A lot of people went nuts to get it here,” Boyle said.
Due in theaters Nov. 5, “127 Hours” stars Franco in practically a one-man show as Aron R alston, a climber trapped in a Utah canyon after his arm was pinned under a boulder in 2003. On the fifth day of his ordeal, Ralston hacked off his arm to free himself.
Ralston attended the premiere with his wife and sister and joined Boyle, Franco and co-stars Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara and Clemence Poesy to answer audience questions after the screening.
The film was based on Ralston’s best-selling book, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place.” When he first met with Boyle about a film version, Ralston said he preferred telling the story as a documentary, but he thanked Boyle for convincing him that a dramatic adaptation would serve the story better.
“As a documentary, it would not have been anywhere near as powerful as that was,” said Ralston, who choked back tears after the screening.
Though the story is grave and the audience squirmed and gasped as Franco recreated Ralston’s gruesome self-amputation, “127 Hours” maintains Boyle’s trademark blend of the hu morous and horrifying. Franco’s Ralston wisecracks incessantly to keep his spirits up, and the film cleverly weaves in a barrage of psychedelic flashbacks and hallucinations as he struggles to survive.
“We desperately wanted a bit of ‘Pineapple Express’ in it,” Boyle said, referring to the 2008 stoner comedy in which Franco starred as an irrepressible marijuana dealer.
FCC To Open Up Vacant TV Airwaves for Broadband
Joelle Tessler, Technology Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) – A new flavor of Wi-Fi, with longer range and wall-piercing power, could show up in wireless gadgets a year from now if the Federal Communications Commission works out the last details of new spectrum rules that have been long in the making.
Nearly two years ago, the FCC voted to open up the airwaves between broadcast TV channels – so-called “white spaces” – for wireless broadband connections that would work like Wi-Fi on steroids. But wrangling over key technical details, including concerns about interference with TV signals and wireless microphones, has prevented exploitation of these spaces.
On Sept. 23, the FCC plans to vote on rules meant to resolve those issues. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski predicts electronics makers will jump at this “super Wi-Fi” technology, as the agency calls it, and make it just as popular as conventional Wi-Fi.
“We’re hoping history will repeat itself,” Genachowski said. “White spaces are a b ig deal for consumers and for investment and innovation.”
The commission’s plan would make white spaces available for free, without specific permission, just as it already does for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Last year’s transition from analog to digital television broadcasting freed up enough spectrum to make this possible, but the plan faced serious opposition from television broadcasters worried that their signals could be disrupted. Wireless microphone manufacturers and users – including churches, theatres, karaoke bars and all types of performers – also raised concerns about interference.
To address these issues, the FCC has been working with broadcasters and white-spaces proponents to map TV channels across the country. The current FCC plan would require installers to configure white-spaces devices to use a frequency that’s vacant in their area – a white space. Alternatively, the devices themselves could figure out their location using such technologies as G PS; a database would then help the devices figure out the right frequencies for their area.
French Filmmaker Claude Chabrol Dies at 80Jenny Barchfield
PARIS (AP) – French director Claude Chabrol, one of the founders of the New Wave movement whose films probed the latent malice beneath the placid surface of bourgeois life, died on Sunday. He was 80.
Christophe Girard, who is responsible for cultural matters at Paris City Hall, announced the death on his blog. Other City Hall officials confirmed that Chabrol passed away, but declined to provide any details, including the cause of death.
A prolific director, Chabrol made more than 70 films and TV productions during his more than half-century-long career. His first movie, 1958’s “Le Beau Serge” won him considerable critical acclaim and was widely considered a sort of manifesto for the New Wave, or “Nouvelle vague” movement – which reinvented the codes of filmmaking and revolutionized cinema starting in the late 1950s. The vastly influential movement also included directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.
Chabrol’s movies focused on the French bourgeoisie, lifting the facade of respectability to reveal the hypocrisy, violence and loathing simmering just below the surface. Often suspenseful, his work drew comparisons with that of Alfred Hitchcock.
Thierry Fremaux, who runs the Cannes Film Festival, told i-Tele news channel that Chabrol “had a much more classic style” than some of the other, more experimental New Wave filmmakers. “But in this classicism there was such an audacity, such freedom and erudition that I think – and history will tell – that his thrillers … will remain something totally unique in French cinema.”
Speaking on France-Info radio, Fremaux called Chabrol’s death “a real shock because he was 80 years old but he continued to work, and the energy, feeling and joie de vivre that he’d always shown made you think he’d always be around.”
“Claude Chabrol is part of our national patrimony … for his films and also for his personality,” he said.
Chabrol worked at a fast clip, churning out about a film every year. He wrote some original scripts, but also adapted classics of French literature, including “Madame Bovary” (1991) and s tories by Guy de Maupassant, for the cinema and for television.
Chabrol’s top films included “Les Biches,” or “Bad Girls,” from 1968 and 1970’s “The Butcher,” as well as the 2000 mystery “Merci pour le chocolat,” with actress Isabelle Huppert, one of his favorite actresses – who starred early on in her career in Chabrol’s “Violette Noiziere,” (1978) and “Story of a Woman” (1988).
Chabrol’s last feature film, “Bellamy” – featuring another giant of French cinema, Gerard Depardieu – came out last year.
Chabrol was born in Paris on June 24, 1930. The son of a pharmacist, he said he “completely” belonged to the sort of bourgeois social milieu that would become the fodder for his films – “otherwise I wouldn’t have dared” depict it, Chabrol said in a 1987 interview.
The bourgeois “are always amusing and they can also be very mean, so it’s just marvelous,” he told “Mardi cinema” television program.
As a young man, he studied literature and law before wr iting movie reviews in the respected French film magazine “Cahiers du cinema.” He had not yet turned 30 when “Le Beau Serge,” the story of a man’s return to his native village after a long absence, was released to critical acclaim.
A bon vivant and longtime smoker, Chabrol was rarely seen without his trademark pipe or Cuban cigar – even on set. He was also a joker and liked to ham it up for the cameras, often making grimaces and funny faces while on the red carpet.
Chabrol also acted, making Hitchcock-style cameos in many of his own films, as well as those by other directors. He last appeared in this year’s “Gainsbourg,” playing a music producer in filmmaker Joann Sfar’s biopic about singer Serge Gainsbourg.
In 2004, he was awarded the European Film Award for the body of his work and a year later received a top honor from the Academie Francaise.
Chabrol was married three times and had three sons.
