Latest news with #BicycleThieves
Mint
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
‘After The Fox': When a neorealist directed a classic Peter Sellers comedy
Vittorio De Sica walks on to the set, a vast expanse of sand. Handsome, hair perfect, dressed in a suit, he graciously acknowledges the crew clapping, and says, 'Please, save the applause for when I'm finished." He sets up the shot: Moses leading the slaves out of Egypt. As a crane lifts his chair up, he says through the megaphone, 'I need more sand in the desert," an instruction his assistant dutifully repeats. This is the kind of the joke you'd expect in a film written by Neil Simon and starring Peter Sellers. But what might surprise some is that After the Fox is directed by De Sica himself. In the 1940s, he was one of the central figures of the neorealist movement in Italian cinema, which prioritised location shooting, non-professional actors and social themes. His unadorned, emotional films, which included Shoeshine (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1952), made him one of the most famous directors in the world. How did De Sica end up making a silly slapstick caper? Well, the star asked for him. Simon, already a successful New York playwright, found his maiden screenplay about a fake director in Italy optioned by British actor Peter Sellers, who wanted to work with De Sica. But it's also true that De Sica, though best known for his neorealist films, was a wide-ranging director with a particular fondness for comedies. He came aboard the project with Cesare Zavattini, writer of Rosselini's Rome, Open City and many of De Sica's own 1940s and '50s classics. Aldo Vanucci, played with fake Italian accent and real gusto by Sellers, is a master thief in semi-retirement. Tempted by the thought of one last job, he agrees to help move the gold—arriving by ship in Italy—from a recent robbery in Cairo. The trouble is, he's only just broken out of jail and the police are looking for him. Hiding from the Carabinieri in a movie theatre, he stumbles upon a solution. Aldo and his cronies turn up in the seaside village of Sevalio (with equipment stolen from the De Sica Moses film), telling everyone the famous director Federico Fabrizi is there to shoot a film with Hollywood star Tony Powell (Victor Mature) and new sensation 'Gina Romantica", actually Aldo's cinema-mad sister (Britt Ekland). The plan is to use the production as cover until they get hold of the gold bars and escape. The scene where Aldo/Fabrizi convinces Tony to join his extremely sketchy production is played for laughs, but the scenario isn't that far-fetched. Italy was a common destination for American films and actors in the 1950s and 1960s, so much so that a term was coined: 'Hollywood on the Tiber". A lot of these actors were B-graders back home, who got to be in Italian Westerns and pepla (historical epics) and be treated like stars. Bigger names came down as well: to enjoy the glamour of Rome, shoot in the legendary Cinecittà studio, and to work with famous directors like De Sica. The film has the unmistakable sardonic zing of Neil Simon; when Gina gushes about Tony being a good kisser, Aldo says, 'Do you know how many good kissers are starving in Italy?" But no one could accuse De Sica and Zavattini of not being good sports. After the Fox gleefully parodies the kind of cinema they made their reputation with. 'What's neorealism?" Tony asks his agent (Martin Balsam). 'No money" is the instant response. The first Sevalio residents Aldo meets are a group of women washing clothes. 'How my heart goes out to these poor forgotten people," he says—neorealism in a nutshell. In a climactic court scene, the emotional language Zavattini once used is turned on its head for a typical Simon put-down: 'Should they be punished because they want to feed the hunger of an empty soul?" Aldo asks, referring to the villagers. 'Yes," the judge replies. 'Take them away." De Sica must have enjoyed even more skewering a movement he had no association with. New Wave Italian cinema, with its themes of alienation and soul-searching, was in vogue then, and presented an irresistible target (in 1963, American critic Pauline Kael wrote a critical piece called 'Come-dressed-as-the-sick-soul-of-Europe parties: La Notte, Last Year at Marienbad, La Dolce Vita"). For their first scene, Aldo tells Tony and Gina to do nothing, just sit silently at a lone table on a beach; he calls it 'a comment on the lack of communication in our society", a jab that seems especially aimed at the stylish, despairing films of Michelangelo Antonioni. All the inside jokes and jabs can't sour After the Fox, which remains silly, sunny and busy from start to finish. Sellers, whose 100th birth anniversary is this September, is sublime as the scheming, quick-thinking Aldo, the exact opposite of his bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films. But everyone else is fantastic too, from Victor Mature gamely sending himself up to the commedia dell'arte detective duo. The film looks ravishing in DeLuxe colour, cinematographer Leonida Barboni taking advantage of the seaside views and Piero Tosi's fetching costumes. As I watched this film on a BFI Blu-ray, beautifully restored, I thought how wonderful it would look on a big screen. And it struck me that not only has it been years, maybe decades, since there was a good-looking studio-backed comedy out of Hollywood, but that full-fledged comedies have mostly receded from the theatrical landscape. It's a huge loss. There's nothing like rocking with laughter in unison with a hundred other people.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Enzo Staiola, Who Starred in ‘Bicycle Thieves' as a Child, Dies at 85
Enzo Staiola, who played the staunch 8-year-old accompanying his father on a quest to recover a stolen bicycle in Vittorio De Sica's classic 1948 film, 'Bicycle Thieves,' died on June 4 in Rome. He was 85. His death, in a hospital, was widely reported in the Italian press. The father's character, played by a sad-eyed real-life factory worker, Lamberto Maggiorani, is the star of the film, which was originally released in the United States as 'The Bicycle Thief' and is routinely cited as one of the greatest films of all time. But Mr. Staiola (pronounced STY-ola), who played the child, Bruno, is in many ways the emotional center of De Sica's work, which is considered a founding document of Italian neorealism and 'a fundamental staging post in the history of the European cinema,' the film historian Robert S.C. Gordon wrote in his 2008 book, 'Bicycle Thieves.' The story, set in impoverished postwar Rome, revolves around Antonio Ricci, Mr. Maggiorani's struggling character, who must get his bicycle back to keep his new job hanging advertising bills around the city. The job requires the use of a bicycle. But he must also retrieve the bike to avoid disappointing his trusting son. The character of Bruno is portrayed with poise and vulnerability by a little boy who, until then, had been more interested in playing soccer in his working-class Roman neighborhood than in acting. The father's quest, unfolding through a series of sharply etched mishaps in the streets of the city, takes on weight for the audience as the despair becomes not just that of an adult but also of a plucky boy with expressive eyes, the young Mr. Staiola. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Arthur Hamilton, 'Cry Me a River' Songwriter, Dies at 98
Arthur Hamilton, the Oscar-nominated songwriter best known for his smoky torch-song classic 'Cry Me a River,' memorably recorded by Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Cocker and many others, has died. He was 98. His death was announced this week by ASCAP and the Society of Composers and Lyricists; details were not immediately available. More from The Hollywood Reporter Enzo Staiola, Child Star in Vittorio De Sica's 'Bicycle Thieves,' Dies at 85 Jason Constantine, Lionsgate Co-President, Dies at 55 Jonathan Joss, 'King of the Hill' Voice Actor, Dies at 59 After Shooting Hamilton received his Oscar nom for best song (shared with composer Riz Ortolani) for 'Till Love Touches Your Life' from Madron (1970), performed by Richard Williams and Jan Daley for the movie Western that starred Richard Boone and Leslie Caron. For Warner Bros.' Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), starring and directed by Jack Webb, Hamilton created two wistful songs for Peggy Lee, who played an alcoholic jazz singer in the musical crime film — 'He Needs Me' and 'Sing a Rainbow,' which would evolve into a children's classic. 'Cry Me a River' was sung by Fitzgerald for the film but did not survive the cutting room floor. However, London — the actress and Webb's ex-wife — recorded it for her 1955 debut album, 'Julie Is Her Name,' and it soared to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. (London and Hamilton had gone to the Hollywood Professional School together, and he took her to the senior prom.) Performed from the perspective of a jilted lover, the sparse 'Cry Me a River' opens with: 'Now you say you're lonely / You cried the whole night through / Well, you can cry me a river / Cry me a river / I cried a river over you.' Fitzgerald released her version on her 1961 album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!, and Cocker performed his on his 1970 Leon Russell-produced live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen. 'Cry Me a River' also would be recorded by Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Susan Boyle, Michael Bublé, Jeff Beck, Diana Krall, Björk and Aerosmith, among many others. 'I just liked the combination of words,' Hamilton told The Wall Street Journal in 2010. 'Instead of 'Eat your heart out' or 'I'll get even with you,' it sounded like a good, smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feelings or broken your heart. 'Its general use as a put-down phrase has continued to delight and amaze me. Whenever my wife and I are watching a film or TV show and the phrase is used, we laugh and gently punch each other.' Arthur Hamilton Stern was born in Seattle on Oct. 22, 1926. His father, Jack Stern, was a songwriter and orchestrator who worked on films including His Night Out (1935), Jane Withers' Little Miss Nobody (1936) and Sweetheart of the Navy (1937). His mother, Grace Hamilton, wrote lyrics for her husband's songs. He came to Los Angeles with his parents when he was an infant, learned to play piano and in 1949 wrote a live stage musical, What a Day, for local station KTTV. He then spent a couple years working for a music publishing company. Hamilton said he was inspired by legendary cabaret performer Bobby Short. 'I told people many times, 'I never went to college, I went to Bobby Short,' ' he noted in 2016 on an episode of The Paul Leslie Hour podcast. Bobby Darin recorded 'He Needs Me' as 'She Needs Me' in 1959 for his second album — the one with 'Mack the Knife' and 'Beyond the Sea' on it — and Hamilton's résumé also included 'Rain Sometimes,' 'One Look' and 'The Best I Ever Was.' He earned Emmy noms in 1993 and '94 for his tunes 'Good Things Grow' and 'Something Is Out There' from the respective TV movies Blind Spot and The Corpse Had a Familiar Face. London's version of 'Cry Me a River,' backed only by Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Leatherwood on bass and released on the newly founded Liberty Records label, became her signature song. It was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2015. 'So fully does London's image, persona and, of course, her voice convey and encompass the world of smoky nightclubs and intimate stages, that every would-be chanteuse, whenever they take to the stage to sing out a song, are (whether they know it or not, whether they credit her or not) both channeling and paying homage to Miss Julie London,' the Library of Congress' Cary O'Dell wrote. Hamilton served as the second president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists from 1985-87 and was a music branch governor at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists and a member of the ASCAP Foundation Board. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Enzo Staiola, Child Star in Vittorio De Sica's ‘Bicycle Thieves,' Dies at 85
Italian child actor Enzo Staiola, best known for playing, at the age of 9 years old, the sad-faced son Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's 1948 Neo-realist masterpiece Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves), has died. He was 85. La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper, on Wednesday was first to report on the death of Staiola, who shot to international fame for his role in the Oscar-winning drama. No cause of death was given. More from The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson Shares How Indian Cinema Legend Satyajit Ray Shaped His Aesthetic Jason Constantine, Lionsgate Co-President, Dies at 55 Evan Shapiro to Keynote The Hollywood Reporter's Access Canada Summit Staiola's co-star in Bicycle Thieves in the role of Antonio Ricci, his impoverished father, was Lamberto Maggiorani, a factory worker-turned-actor, as De Sica wanted working class authenticity for his humanist drama. Antonio, with son in tow, in the film searches for a thief and his stolen bicycle, without which he cannot work and feed his young family. The loss of the bicycle proves to be a body-blow for the forlorn father, who goes on a frantic and fruitless odyssey through the streets of Rome. At one point, a desperate Antonio steals a bike himself and is caught by people nearby. When they show him mercy, the crestfallen father is left ashamed in front of his son. The classic Italian Neo-realist film left Staiola forever etched in celluloid history as Bruno Ricci, whose memorably big eyes were so expressive of childhood innocence as the young boy followed his anguished father through the streets of post-war Rome. Born on Nov. 15, 1939 in Rome, Staiola in a July 2023 interview with La Repubblica recalled first meeting De Sica, the celebrated Italian director, who apparently saw him walking home from school. 'I was coming back from school and at a certain point I noticed this big car following me at walking pace,' Staiola explained. 'Then this gentleman with gray hair, all dressed up, got out and asked me: 'What's your name?', and I was silent. And he said: 'But don't you talk?' 'I don't feel like talking,' I replied. My mother always told me not to be too familiar if someone stopped us… But De Sica followed me home. My parents recognized him right away. He was a famous actor. He sat at the table in our house and tried to convince them to let me act in his new film. But they didn't want to.' Staiola eventually got the part of Bruno without having to audition after his uncle took him down to De Sica's studio to be reintroduced. Despite the success of Bicycle Thieves, which won the Academy Award for best foreign film, Staiola never worked again with the famed Italian director. 'De Sica was like that; he discovered you and then that was it. Maybe if he had followed me and made me other proposals I would have become an actor for life,' he recalled in the 2023 interview. Staiola, after his breakout role in Bicycle Thieves (sometimes known by the title The Bicycle Thief), went on to star in a few other movies, including Joseph L Mankeiwicz's The Barefoot Contessa drama in 1954, which also starred Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. His credits included 1950s Italian movies like Hearts Without Borders, Vulcano, Guilt is Not Mine and A Tale of Five Women. And he had a small part in 1977 in Flavio Mogherini's The Girl in the Yellow Pyjamas. But Staiola after early success retreated from film sets and became a mathematics teacher and a longtime clerk in a land registry office. And he appears to have regretted becoming an Italian movie star. 'In the end, it was a real pain in the ass,' he told La Repubblica. 'As a kid I could never play with my friends because if I made a mark on my face I couldn't make movies anymore. Then it was also a bit boring, the times of cinema are very long.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Lena Dunham, Sarah Snook Shows Touted as Universal U.K. TV Labels Execs Talk Sector Cuts
Upcoming Sarah Snook-starring thriller series All Her Fault and Lena Dunham rom-com show Too Much, as well as a planned TV take on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds got big shout-outs during SXSW London on Thursday. They were in the spotlight as global hit series from various production labels under the Universal International Studios umbrella took center stage at the first-ever SXSW London. More from The Hollywood Reporter Enzo Staiola, Child Star in Vittorio De Sica's 'Bicycle Thieves,' Dies at 85 Wes Anderson Shares How Indian Cinema Legend Satyajit Ray Shaped His Aesthetic Evan Shapiro to Keynote The Hollywood Reporter's Access Canada Summit 'Global Stories: What makes compelling TV?' was the question discussed by Surian Fletcher-Jones, head of drama at Working Title Television; Sue Gibbs, head of development at Heyday Television, the joint venture of producer David Heyman and Universal International Studios; and Noemi Spanos, creative director at Carnival Films. Beatrice Springborn, president, Universal International Studios and Universal Content Productions (UCP), functioned as the moderator. Confronted with a question about how TV industry cost reductions, other spending cutbacks and layoffs are affecting their work, the execs shared insight into the challenges but also opportunities. 'One is adapting,' offered Gibbs. 'Heyday as a company, historically, we've always worked with IP. David's known for it with Harry Potter and Paddington. So we will always be looking for IP. I think we're probably looking less to the new books that are coming out because it's so super competitive. They're so expensive. So, we're looking at classic books, old TV shows, articles, etc. So I think it's adapting in that way.' Gibbs also mentioned that Heyday has often commissioned scripts with writers and then taken them out to the market to buyers. 'We're slightly changing that now and trying to be more fleet of foot,' she explained. 'Perhaps you just go out with a pitch so you can be faster. Or we're trying to set up more projects with buyers. [In the past], we would have perhaps taken them out to a number of buyers at the same time. Now, we are trying to get in with a buyer straight off, which is a financial incentive, but it's really more about the emotional incentive. If the buyer is emotionally invested in your project from the off, they can be more likely to try and help make it work.' In terms of upcoming shows they are excited for, Spanos touted psychological thriller All Her Fault for Peacock. 'Sarah Snook's character knocks on a door to pick up a kid from a play date, and the older woman who opens the door has never heard of her, her kid has no idea what she's talking about,' she explained. 'That kicks off that sort of thriller engine, but also it turns into a sort of bigger Big Little Lies kind of mystery about all the secrets and lies between these different families and relationships.' Concluded Spanos: 'What I liked coming into it, reading it fresh and watching it fresh was that there's quite a thematic feminist messaging underneath it all, because it's called All Her Fault, and it's all really about how the mother is treated very differently from the father in that circumstances by the police, by the community, by everyone, really.' About the series planned on The Birds, Gibbs shared: 'This is obviously a Universal film title, the iconic Hitchcock movie. We're not adapting that. We're going back to the source material, the Daphne du Maurier novella and using that as inspiration. And at its heart, it's looking at when nature turns on you. Obviously, with climate change that is very timely, and we just attached an exciting U.S. showrunner who's very experienced in genre.' She didn't mention their name. Fletcher-Jones, meanwhile, touted Too Much and how it explores the differences between the U.S. and U.K. in lovable ways. And she said that Working Title and the BBC are developing a TV adaptation of E.M. Forster's popular 1924 novel A Passage to India, which is set against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement against the British Empire and has previously received the film treatment. The companies are collaborating with Canadian director and writer Richie Mehta on the five-part series. 'Richie is Indian by heritage, so it is completely turning that novel on its head and doing it from the Indian point of view,' shared Fletcher-Jones. 'It's a beautiful piece he's writing and directing it all.' She also called it a take that will 'reclaim colonial history, which feels really sort of Soul Food-y.' On Wednesday, SXSW London sessions featured appearances by the likes of Idris Elba, ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus and Letitia Wright, among others. SXSW London, which not only features panel discussions, but also film screenings and live music events, among other things, runs through June 7. Penske Media, the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, is the majority stakeholder of SXSW. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
