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Time of India
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Bruce Willis: A look at his career, unforgettable roles, and his fight with dementia
Bruce Willis , the 'Die Hard' actor, has been in critical condition and now, can no longer speak, walk, or remember his fruitful career. The latest reports state that the condition of the actor, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, has worsened. The 70-year-old actor announced his diagnosis in 2023, after retiring from acting in 2022 due to the early signs. Bruce Willis and his career Willis, known for his iconic films, has acted in nearly 100 films with one of the greatest cinematic moments. However, he rose to fame by starring in the classic 1988 film, 'Die Hard,' portraying NYPD officer John McClane. Through the '90s, Willis made an indelible mark in the entertainment industry with films like 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), '12 Monkeys' (1995), 'The Fifth Element' (1997), 'Armageddon' (1998), and 'The Sixth Sense' (1999). Bruce Willis and the list of his awards Born on March 19, 1955, Walter Bruce Willis (aka Bruce Willis) has received many awards throughout his career for his exceptional work. The actor won a Golden Globe for the renowned series, 'Moonlighting' in 1987, in addition to two Primetime Emmy Awards for 'Moonlighting' and for a guest appearance in the popular series 'Friends' in 2000. Along with the trophies, Willis has also been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with recognition from the American Cinematheque and French Order of Arts and Letters. Bruce Willis' personal life According to Express Tribune, the actor's personal life has always been a hot topic in Hollywood. Willis tied the knot with the charming actress, Demi Moore , in 1987, and shares three daughters: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah. Furthermore, the 'IT couple' decided to split up in 2000. However, they have been co-parenting the kids, and have maintained a cordial relationship. Later in 2009, Bruce married a model and actress, Emma Heming, and shares two children with her, Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn. Bruce Willis' health update As per the above stated portal, currently, the health of the actor is seemingly deteriorating, and he is 'said to have become largely non-verbal and is reportedly experiencing motor difficulties, though no specific details about his mobility have been confirmed by his family in recent months.'
Express Tribune
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Who is Bruce Willis? A look at his career, notable roles and health journey
In July 2025, Bruce Willis's family confirmed that the actor no longer remembers his career in film, due to the progression of frontotemporal dementia, a neurological condition that affects areas of the brain responsible for language, behavior, and decision-making. The diagnosis was first shared publicly in 2023, following his 2022 retirement due to aphasia, an early sign of the disease. The announcement prompted renewed public reflection on Willis's decades-long career, which spans more than 100 film and television credits. He gained international recognition in 1988 with Die Hard, portraying NYPD officer John McClane. The film became a critical and commercial success, launching a franchise and bringing mainstream attention to Willis, who was previously known for his work on the TV series Moonlighting (1985–1989). The line 'Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*er' from the film became widely associated with his on-screen persona. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Willis appeared in a variety of genres. His notable films include Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), and The Sixth Sense (1999). His roles often featured characters in high-stakes situations and were frequently part of ensemble or science fiction films. Willis received several major awards during his career. He won a Golden Globe for Moonlighting in 1987, as well as two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Moonlighting and another for a guest role on Friends in 2000. He has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and recognition from the American Cinematheque and French Order of Arts and Letters. Willis has five daughters, three with actress Demi Moore, and two with his current wife, Emma Heming Willis. His family has regularly shared public updates regarding his health and has remained active in raising awareness of frontotemporal dementia. Since his diagnosis, Willis has stayed out of the public spotlight.
Los Angeles Times
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Is the making-of ‘Apocalypse Now' doc the greatest ever? Plus the week's best movies
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. Writer-director Ari Aster has refashioned himself from a maker of art-house horror films like 'Hereditary' and 'Midsommar' into a more overt social satirist with 'Beau Is Afraid' and his latest film, 'Eddington,' which opens this week. Pointedly set in the spring of 2020 in a small town in New Mexico — a moment when uncertainty, paranoia and division over the response to COVID were maximally disorienting — the film's story concerns a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) who tosses his hat in the ring to run against an incumbent mayor (Pedro Pascal). Each spouts their own complicated, spiraling rhetoric as the race between them becomes more intense, and they seem swept away by circumstances much larger than they can understand or control. In her review of the film Amy Nicholson wrote, 'Aster's feistiest move is that he refuses to reveal the truth. When you step back at the end to take in the full landscape, you can put most of the story together. (Watch 'Eddington' once, talk it out over margaritas and then watch it again.) Aster makes the viewer say their theories out loud afterwards, and when you do, you sound just as unhinged as everyone else in the movie. I dig that kind of culpability: a film that doesn't point sanctimonious fingers but insists we're all to blame. 'But there are winners and losers and winners who feel like losers and schemers who get away with their misdeeds scot-free. Five years after the events of this movie, we're still standing in the ashes of the aggrieved. But at least if we're cackling at ourselves together in the theater, we're less alone.' Carlos Aguilar spoke to acclaimed cinematographer Darius Khondji, a former collaborator of David Fincher, James Gray and the Safdies, about working with Aster for the first time on 'Eddington.' 'Ari and I have a common language,' Khondji said. 'We discovered quite early on working together that we have a very similar taste for dark films, not dark in lighting but in storytelling.' The 1991 film 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse' is widely thought of as among the greatest behind-the-scenes documentaries ever made. Directed by Fax Bahr with George Hickenlooper from documentary footage directed by Eleanor Coppola, the film explores the epically complicated production of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now.' A new 4K restoration of 'Hearts of Darkness' will have a limited run at the American Cinematheque beginning Sunday, with Bahr in-person for multiple Q&As. When Eleanor Coppola went to the Philippines in 1976 with her husband and their three children for the production of his hallucinatory Vietnam War saga 'Apocalypse Now,' he enlisted her to shoot doc footage in part to save on additional crew and also to give her something to do. Drawing from Eleanor's remarkable footage, surreptitious audio recordings she made and her written memoir of the experience, 'Notes: On the Making of 'Apocalypse Now,'' 'Hearts of Darkness' becomes a portrait of the struggle to maintain creativity, composure and sanity amid chaos as everything that could possibly go wrong seemingly does. Military helicopters are redeployed during takes, star Martin Sheen suffers a heart attack, monsoons destroy sets, Marlon Brando is immovable on scheduling and the ending of what all this is leading toward remains elusive. 'I think it's really held up and survived,' said Bahr of the documentary in an interview this week. 'It works as a complement to this extraordinary film that Francis produced. Of course, ['Apocalypse Now'] would be what it is without this, but I do think for people who really want to go deeper into the 'Apocalypse' experience, this is really a necessary journey to take.' When 'Apocalypse Now' first premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola infamously said, 'The way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment and little by little we went insane.' The years between the lengthy production of 'Apocalypse Now,' its turbulent release and the subsequent years before the 'Hearts of Darkness' project came to be likely eased the Coppolas into participating with such candor and full-fledged access. 'I think having almost 10 years after 'Apocalypse Now' was helpful,' said James T. Mockoski, who oversaw the restoration for Coppola's company American Zoetrope. 'It would've been a much different documentary when it was supposed to come out. It was supposed to support the publicity and the marketing of the film at that time. 'Apocalypse' was very difficult, as we have seen, obviously. I don't know how much they would've had the hunger to revisit the film and go right into a documentary. It was a rather difficult, challenging time for them. And I think 10 years gave them a perspective that was needed.' 'He gambled it all and he won,' said Bahr. 'And what I hope we really achieved with 'Hearts' was showing the despair that really all artists go through in the creative process. And even though you go there, if you keep at it and your goal is true then you achieve artistic greatness.' According to Mockoski, Francis Ford Coppola has seen his own relationship to the documentary change over the years. While at times unflattering, and certainly showing the filmmaker racked by doubt and in deep creative crisis, 'Hearts' also shows him as someone, improbably, finding his way. 'It's a very hard relationship with the documentary, but he has grown over the years to be more accepting of it,' said Mockoski. 'He doesn't like the films to ever be shown together. If anyone wants to book it, they shouldn't be on the same day. There should be some distance. And he doesn't really want people to watch the documentary and then just figure out, where's Francis and what is his state of mind at this point? They're two separate things for him. And he would rather people watch 'Apocalypse' just for the experience of that, not to be clouded by 'Hearts.'' In his original review of 'Hearts of Darkness,' Michael Wilmington wrote, 'In the first two 'Godfather' movies, Coppola seemed to achieve the impossible: combining major artistic achievement with spectacular box-office success, mastering art and business. In 'Apocalypse Now,' he wanted to score another double coup: create a huge, adrenaline-churning Irwin Allenish spectacle and something deeper, more private, filled with the times' terror. Amazingly, he almost did. And the horror behind that 'almost' — Kurtz's Horror, the horror of Vietnam, of ambition itself — is what 'Hearts of Darkness' gives us so wrenchingly well.' 'What 'Hearts' is great about is that it shows you a period of filmmaking that's just not seen today,' said Mockoski. 'You look at this and you look at ['Apocalypse'] and there's just no way we could make this film. Would we ever allow an actor to go to that extreme situation with Martin Sheen? Would we be allowed to set that much gasoline on fire in the jungle? Hollywood was sort of slow to evolve, they were making films like that up from the silent era, these epic films, going to extremes to just do art. It just captured a moment in time that I don't think we'll ever see again.' Having premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and screened only a few times since, Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' will play twice daily at the Vista Theater from July 18-28. Clocking in at over 4 hours and screening from Tarantino's personal 35mm print (complete with French subtitles), it combines the films known as 'Kill Bill Vol. 1' and 'Kill Bill Vol. 2' into a single experience with a few small changes. The main difference is simply taking it all in as 'The Whole Bloody Affair,' an epic tale of revenge as a woman mostly known as 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman in a career-defining performance) seeks to find those who tried to kill her on her wedding day. (I'll be seeing the combined cut for the first time myself during this run at the Vista.) Manohla Dargis' Los Angeles Times reviews of the two films when they were first released in October 2003 and April 2004 still make for some of the most incisive writing on Tarantino as a filmmaker. Dargis' review of 'Vol. 2' inadvertently helps sell the idea of the totalizing 'The Whole Bloody Affair' experience by saying, 'An adrenaline shot to the movie heart, soul and mind, Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill Vol. 2' is a blast of pure pop pleasure. The second half of Tarantino's long-gestating epic, 'Vol. 2' firmly lays to rest the doubts raised by 'Vol. 1' as to whether the filmmaker had retained his chops after years of silence and, as important, had anything to offer beyond pyrotechnics and bloodshed. Tarantino does have something to say, although most of what he does have to say can be boiled down to two words: Movies rock. 'In a world of commodity filmmaking in which marketing suits offer notes on scripts, this is no small thing. Personal vision is as rare in Hollywood as humility, but personal vision — old, new, borrowed and true blue to the filmmaker's inspirations — shapes 'Vol. 2,' giving it texture and density. Personal vision makes Tarantino special, but it isn't what makes him Quentin Tarantino. What does distinguish him, beyond a noggin full of film references, a candy-coated visual style and a deep-tissue understanding of how pop music has shaped contemporary life, affecting our very rhythms, is his old-time faith in the movies. Few filmmakers love movies as intensely; fewer still have the ability to remind us why we fell for movies in the first place.' '2046' in 35mm Showing at Vidiots on Friday night in 35mm will be Wong Kar-wai's '2046,' the 2004 follow-up to his cherished 'In the Mood for Love.' Loosely connected to both 'In the Mood for Love' and Wong's earlier 'Days of Being Wild,' '2046' stars Tony Leung as a writer in late 1960s Hong Kong who has encounters with a series of women, played by the likes of Maggie Cheung, Faye Wong, Gong Li, Carina Lau and Zhang Ziyi. (He may be imagining them.) Fans of Wong's stylish, smoky romanticism will not be disappointed. In her original review of the film, Carina Chocano called it 'a gorgeous, fevered dream of a movie that blends recollection, imagination and temporal dislocation to create an emotional portrait of chaos in the aftermath of heartbreak.' 'Lost in America' + 'Modern Romance' On Tuesday and Wednesday, the New Beverly will screen a 35mm double bill of Albert Brooks' 1985 'Lost in America' and 1981's 'Modern Romance.' Directed by, co-written by (with Monica Johnson) and starring Brooks, both films are fine showcases for his lacerating comedic sensibilities. A satire of the lost values of the 1960s generation in the face of the materialism of 1980s, 'Lost in America' has Brooks as an advertising executive who convinces his wife (Julie Hagerty) to join him in quitting their jobs, selling everything they own and setting out in a deluxe RV to explore the country, 'Easy Rider'-style. In a review of 'Lost in America,' Patrick Goldstein wrote, 'Appearing in his usual disguise, that of the deliriously self-absorbed maniac, Brooks turns his comic energies on his favorite target — himself — painting an agonizingly accurate portrait of a man imprisoned in his own fantasies. … You get the feeling that Brooks has fashioned an unerring parody of someone who's somehow lost his way in our lush, consumer paradise. Here's a man who can't tell where the desert ends and the oasis begins.' 'Modern Romance,' features Brooks as a lovelorn film editor in Los Angeles desperate to win back his ex-girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold). In his original review of 'Modern Romance,' Kevin Thomas wrote, 'You have to hand it to Albert Brooks. To put it mildly he's not afraid to present himself unsympathetically.' In a 1981 interview with Goldstein, Brooks said, 'As a comedian it's really my job to be the monster. People either love me or hate me. If I wanted to be a nice guy, I'd make a movie about someone who saves animals.' (Brooks would, of course, go on to appear as a voice actor in 'Finding Nemo' and 'Finding Dory.') 'The Little Mermaid' For the next installment of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.'s ongoing series at the Egyptian, there will be a screening on Thursday, July 24, of 1989's 'The Little Mermaid' with directors Ron Clements and John Musker present for a Q&A moderated by Carlos Aguilar. 'The Little Mermaid' received LAFCA's inaugural award for animation, the first of its kind among critics groups.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The American Cinematheque, L.A.'s Year-Round Film Festival, Celebrates 40 Years of Movies
The American Cinematheque, L.A.'s Year-Round Film Festival, Celebrates 40 Years of Movies originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Film festivals have been bumming around Los Angeles since the dawn of the movie industry. The 1923 Motion Picture Exposition brought movie stars, wrestlers and stuntmen to an empty field near the Coliseum to drum up interest in silent movies. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unspooled the 1916 film Intolerance for the public in 1940. During World War II, the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax began showing vintage films year-round. More comprehensive programming started when LACMA came to Wilshire Boulevard — and when student director Gary Essert started scheduling films at UCLA in 1964. Four years later, the twentysomething Essert leased an abandoned nightclub in Hollywood to create a new kind of venue he called Kaleidoscope. 'We had hundreds of people sitting on the floor at the old Earl Carroll Theatre,' Essert's onetime colleague Marc Wanamaker says. 'We had a professional light show and then the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane would play, and then we'd show films on a big Cinemascope screen we made. It was a film orgy for 72 hours straight.' Essert's Kaleidoscope evolved into the Los Angeles International Film Exposition, recruiting luminaries like George Cukor and Rosalind Russell to serve on its board. Filmex premiered The Last Picture Show at Grauman's Chinese in 1971, with Groucho Marx and Andy Warhol in the audience. By 1985, Essert was ousted from Filmex but, with help from filmmaker Sydney Pollack, turned his attention to building a permanent home for revival film; he called it the American Cinematheque. Inspired by European temples to film, the complex included plans for three theaters, a cinema bookstore, shops and restaurants at the base of a luxury hotel built around the landmark Pan-Pacific Auditorium in the Fairfax District. But years of planning, fundraising and politicking went up in smoke, along with the building, at the end of the 1980s. The group tried to resurface at the old Kaleidoscope (by then the Aquarius Theatre), as well as what's now Harmony Gold and the Montalbán, before settling on a former dance school next to the Hollywood Roosevelt. Soon, Essert and his boyfriend and business partner Gary Abrahams succumbed to AIDS. 'They died around the same time,' Wanamaker says. 'It left a big void, and the Cinematheque also died for a while. Barbara Smith was our box office manager and nursed [Essert] in the end. It was in his will that she continue the Cinematheque, and a year or two after he died, she got it going again.' Smith was at the helm when the group purchased the earthquake-ravaged Egyptian theater for $1. She ran the restored movie palace for two decades before retiring in 2018. Two years later, the nonprofit sold the building to Netflix but continues programming on weekends. Today, the Cinematheque also operates the Aero and a screen at the Los Feliz 3, selling out noir nights, Hitchcock revivals and glamorous premieres just as it did decades ago. 'Gary was a showman, a Barnum,' Wanamaker recalls. 'He would have been extremely pleased.' This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Misery Loves Company? Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair Hits a Nerve.
The festival Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair started three years ago as a primal scream from a little Los Angeles nonprofit organization. What has happened since says a lot about the mood in at least one corner of American culture. The American Cinematheque, a nonprofit that brings classic art films to Los Angeles theaters, was struggling to sell tickets in 2022. Older cinephiles were still spooked by the Covid pandemic; younger ones were glued to Netflix. At the same time, some Cinematheque staff members were depressed about the direction the world seemed to be heading. It was the year Russia invaded Ukraine, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a gunman killed 19 children at a Texas elementary school and Big Tech rolled out artificial intelligence bots. Out of that somber stew came a programming idea called Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair. Over seven days, the Cinematheque screened 30 feel-bad movies. It called the selections 'the greatest films from around the world that explore the darkest sides of humanity.' For the inaugural festival, one centerpiece film was Béla Tarr's 'Satantango' (1994), a seven-hour-and-19-minute contemplation of decay and misery. ''Everyone was saying, 'You should do comedies,'' Grant Moninger, the Cinematheque's artistic director, said. 'But we thought, 'What if you did the exact opposite?' We're not in this to dangle keys at a baby.' (Now might be a good moment to mention that Moninger grew up with a mother, he said, who 'only rented movies on VHS in two genres: the Holocaust and slavery.') Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
