westsidestory

westsidestory @ 2023-09-11T08:57:00

2023-09-11T12:58:09Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy belated Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2022-09-10T09:14:00

2022-09-10T13:15:10Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2021-09-10T05:25:00

2021-09-10T09:25:51Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2020-09-10T04:59:00

2020-09-10T08:59:25Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2019-09-10T19:29:00

2019-09-10T23:30:07Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2018-09-26T03:18:00

2018-09-26T07:18:27Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Robert Wise movies: 20 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include ‘West Side Story,’ ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘The Sand Pebbles’

Zach Laws, Chris Beachum
Film News

Robert Wise would’ve celebrated his 104th birthday on September 10. Although you won’t often hear his name mentioned among auteur theorists, the four-time Oscar winner amassed an impressive filmography in his lifetime. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Wise cut his teeth as a film editor, most notably working on Orson Welles‘ landmark film “Citizen Kane” (1941), for which he received an Oscar nomination. He made his directorial debut with “The Curse of the Cat People” (1944), the first of many successful collaborations with low-budget horror producer Val Lewton.
( Read more... )

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westsidestory @ 2017-09-10T03:10:00

2017-09-10T07:11:12Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise .

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westsidestory @ 2017-06-17T12:43:00

2017-06-17T16:46:39Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Book Review: "Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures" By Joe Jordan

BY DEAN BRIERLY

For a film director with such an iconic resume, there’s a surprising scarcity of scholarly books devoted to Robert Wise, the man who directed such classics as "West Side Story" (1961), "The Haunting" (1963), “The Sound of Music” (1965), “The Curse of the Cat People” (1944), “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), “The Sand Pebbles” (1966) and many other critical and commercial successes. To say nothing of his stature as the man who edited “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942) before taking up decades-long residence in the director’s chair.

Wise brought a self-effacing approach to directing, one that never drew attention to itself. He may have had the most “invisible” style of all the major directors from Hollywood’s Golden Era, which no doubt helps explain why he never had the auteur imprimatur conferred upon him by French critics who swooned over Welles’ baroque visuals, Douglas Sirk’s melodramatic excess, and Howard Hawks’ male-bonding thematic.
( Read more... )

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westsidestory @ 2016-09-10T03:16:00

2016-09-10T07:16:07Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2015-09-10T03:41:00

2015-09-10T07:41:53Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2015-08-06T15:36:00

2015-08-06T19:36:37Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Wonders in the Dark

by Sam Juliano

The film of West Side Story produces the same brilliant effect as the play. This does not mean that the stage show has merely been duplicated; on the contrary, to get the same effect, it had to be effectively translated into a second medium. Because of the quality of the original materials and of the translation, the result is the best film musical ever made. -Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

West Side Story, a cultural institution with a legacy to match any American film in the musical genre or otherwise, is also a curiosity. ( Read more... )

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westsidestory @ 2014-11-16T17:12:00

2014-11-16T22:12:39Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Watch: 45-Minute Documentary on Director Robert Wise
Director of West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture

By: Mike Shutt

People latch on to certain filmmakers and hold them up to an incredibly high standard. Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and many others are given the pedestal treatment. However, there are so many directors out there who never get their due diligence. For example, who talks about how great Victor Fleming is? Not many people, despite directing Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz... in the same year. One such filmmaker who I think has made some pretty fantastic films but is often overlooked in the film community is Robert Wise, who is the subject of a forty-five minute documentary you can watch below.

The man started off as an editor, editing films like Citizen Kane and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Moving into the director's chair, he made films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Haunting, and many others. Why does no one hold this guy in such high regard as the previous people I have mentioned. That is one hell of a track record.

The documentary showcases the varied and extremely high quality career of Wise. I hope many of you out there watch it to further your appreciation of not only Robert Wise but many other directors out there who are never mentioned with the greats.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/watch-45-minute-documentary-director-robert-wise/

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westsidestory @ 2014-09-10T03:49:00

2014-09-10T07:49:13Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2013-09-10T03:46:00

2013-09-10T07:45:55Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Happy Birthday to Robert Wise

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westsidestory @ 2013-06-25T06:06:00

2013-06-25T10:06:22Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

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westsidestory @ 2012-04-11T14:23:00

2012-04-11T18:28:49Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

Pow! Violence and West Side Story

by Paul Bullock

One of the things I love about films is how multi-layered they are. Great films – the truly great ones – have hidden depths to them; they can seem like frothy entertainment on first viewing and significant critical theses on second viewing. This happened to me this week with West Side Story. I first watched the film when I was a teenager and was, as practically everyone who watches it is, bowled over by the eloquence of the storytelling, the catchiness of the music and the breathtaking brilliance of the dancing. It seemed a fantastic musical, a wonderful love story and a cracking visual feast. But nothing more.

How wrong I was. Having watched Gypsy recently, I was keen to launch into another Natalie Wood film and WSS was the one I had to hand. As with Gypsy, I fell in love with Wood and her nuanced, heartbreaking performance, but what stood out to me even more was the substance behind the film. Yes, West Side Story is all the things I previously mentioned – indeed, on second viewing all those things stood out even more. But it’s also a searing social satire and a deeply philosophical film about the pointlessness of prejudice and the omnipresent spectre of violence.

Director Robert Wise and choreographer/co-direct Jerome Robbins realise these themes through three methods – colour, camera angles and music – and I’ll go over those in this blog.
( Read more... )

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westsidestory @ 2011-12-28T20:51:00

2011-12-29T01:55:14Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

A few rare photos from the 1961 film ( Read more... )

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"Life" Looks Back With Great Photos

2011-10-18T19:29:11Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo

LIFE celebrates 'West Side Story's 50th anniversary with never-before-seen photos of Natalie Wood

by Jeff Labrecque

Fifty years ago today, West Side Story opened in theaters and became an instant global sensation. Adapted from Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins’ 1957 Broadway musical — a modern, urban twist of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet — the film entranced audiences with its acrobatic choreography, finger-snapping songs, and heartbreaking tragedy. To commemorate the occasion, LIFE.com is currently showcasing a look back at the iconic film and a gallery of never-before-seen photos of Natalie Wood, who won the role of the innocent Puerto Rican girl in love with her brother’s sworn enemy only after Audrey Hepburn declined due to her pregnancy.

By the time 23-year-old Wood landed the role of Maria, she was already an established Hollywood veteran, a former child star (Miracle on 34th Street) who’d made the leap to more mature roles (Rebel Without a Cause). Though she wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for her role in West Side Story — her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon and she instead received a Best Actress nod for the same year’s Splendor in the Grass, opposite Warren Beatty — the musical won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. (Wood lost to Sophia Loren, who took home the trophy for Two Women.)

Wood had an allure — her Hollywood romances are nearly as renowned as her movies — that matched her extraordinary talent. Before she turned 25, she had collected three Academy Award nominations. But it’s West Side Story that most movie fans think of when they look back on her tragically abbreviated career: her white dress at the dance when she first meets Tony, her girlish delight in “feeling pretty,” and her ultimate fury at the childish men who cost her true love. And those eyes — her mesmerizing, doe-like eyes. Shakespeare could have written about them.
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http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/10/18/natalie-wood-west-side-story-50th-anniversary/

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westsidestory @ 2011-08-20T08:31:00

2011-08-20T08:31:00Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

The Musical blog-a-thon

Here is my part to the musical blog-a-thon on Encore's World of Film & TV ! Enjoy!

I thought for quite some time which movie musical I would discuss here. There are so many I love and the term ‘favorite’ is actually very complicated – should I discuss the one that I watch the most, the one I think is the best, a guilty pleasure?

At first, I thought I would discuss about Oliver! since this a movie that usually gets a lot of hate but I really enjoy it. But in the end I decided to go with this familiar classic (and I’m sure I’m not the only one) because West Side Story has a very special place in my heart: for me it was the movie that started it all – my love for movies, my love for the Oscars and my love for musicals. There was a time when I watched this movie basically every day and I decided to see more ‘classics’ and musicals. And when I found out that the movie won 10 Oscars, I was happy and impressed and decided to learn more about those Oscars. West Side Story was also the first musical I saw on the stage and I was looking forward to it more than to Christmas.

( Read more... )

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westsidestory @ 2011-08-19T07:32:00

2011-08-19T07:32:00Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

From the Turner Classic Movies website :

West Side Story(1961)

The first order of business in bringing West Side Story to the screen was casting. This was left largely to Robert Wise, who had been chosen as co-director primarily for his work with film actors (stage choreographer-director Jerome Robbins would handle the musical sequences). ( Read more... )

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Musical Monday - Two Days Late

2011-07-20T19:02:00Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

And a bonus item :

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westsidestory @ 2011-06-15T17:19:00

2011-06-15T17:19:00Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

West Side Story 1961

by Laura's View

The film version of West Side Story was unconventional in many ways including the selection of its director and the casting of the two leads. It also employed groundbreaking music tempos and choreography. These elements were necessary to tell this tragic love story encased in social conflicts and the restlessness of the American youth of the time. Although the film did stick to many facets characteristic of movie musicals, it broke with many traditions resulting in it becoming the most highly awarded musical of all time.
( Read more... )

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I've Been Reading

2009-06-25T18:47:00Z

Posted by: petzipellepingo.livejournal.com

Robert Wise on his films : from editing room to director's chair by Sergio Leemann and there's a chapter on each film, including West Side Story. Let me quote an excerpt : ( Read more... )

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Director dies at 91

2005-09-16T01:35:00Z

Posted by: greenapple-sea.livejournal.com

Just stopped by IMDB to be greeted by the news that Robert Wise, one of the directors of the West Side Story movie, has passed away of heart failure. He also directed The Sound of Music movie.

~~For a little while, more info can be found here on IMDB. They may be changing the link though if more breaking news comes through.~~ (Never mind, IMDB took down the nice obituary already.) Robert Wise's info page can also be found there.

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