On the opening day of The New York Film Festival, the Walter Reade Theatre was packed for the press screening and press conference for Joel Coen’s first solo outing, his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Encouraged over the years to direct a stage version of “Macbeth” by his wife, Frances McDormand, Coen finally succumbed after she played Lady Macbeth in a Berkeley Rep production.

After watching some rehearsals, Coen started to see his way to doing it as a film, inspired more by Carl Dreyer and Roman Polanski than Orson Welles, Coen said. The film is stripped down and overtly a play, but it’s also visual and aural and cinematic, shot by five-time Oscar nominee Bruno Delbonnel (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) in glorious black-and-white.

“The Tragedy of Macbeth” does have that “Chimes of Midnight” foggy-set feel, as Coen got a kick out of figuring...

On the opening day of The New York Film Festival, the Walter Reade Theatre was packed for the press screening and press conference for Joel Coen’s first solo outing, his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Encouraged over the years to direct a stage version of “Macbeth” by his wife, Frances McDormand, Coen finally succumbed after she played Lady Macbeth in a Berkeley Rep production.

After watching some rehearsals, Coen started to see his way to doing it as a film, inspired more by Carl Dreyer and Roman Polanski than Orson Welles, Coen said. The film is stripped down and overtly a play, but it’s also visual and aural and cinematic, shot by five-time Oscar nominee Bruno Delbonnel (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) in glorious black-and-white.

“The Tragedy of Macbeth” does have that “Chimes of Midnight” foggy-set feel, as Coen got a kick out of figuring...

Franco Zeffirelli, the stylish and sometimes controversial theater, opera and film director, has died. He was 96.

Zeffirelli, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” died at his home in Rome at noon on Saturday, his son Luciano told the Associated Press. “He had suffered for a while, but he left in a peaceful way,” Luciano said.

While Zeffirelli was fond of making films with literary antecedents such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Taming of the Shrew” and “Jane Eyre,” his legacy as director of extravagant opera and theater productions is probably more consistent and long-lasting.

He directed, co-wrote and co-produced the 1966 production of “Taming of the Shrew,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, one of the twice-married celebrated pair’s most successful co-starring assignments. Spirited and amusing, it paved the way for a youthful and sexy “Romeo and Juliet,” which was a major box office success in the U.

When you watch the silent-screen star Louise Brooks in one of the films that made her a legend, most spectacularly the glittering femme-fatale drama “Pandora’s Box” (1929), it’s shocking to see how contemporary she looks. Haircuts that were once cutting edge — punk spikes, a ’50s ducktail, Jane Fonda’s “Klute” shag — look, almost inevitably with time, less radical than they once did, but Brooks’ girl-in-a-black-helmet look is nearly 100 years old, and in its Joan of Arc of the Jazz Age way it still looks like something out of a sci-fi fantasy. It’s the sharpness of the angles — they look like they could slice you — and the jet-black lacquered sheen of it.

And, of course, it’s the ivory-skinned siren who wore it. Brooks, unlike every other actress of the silent era, even the greatest ones, didn’t go in for grand displays; she understated her smiling freedom and sensuality,...

Albert Finney, one of the leading actors of the postwar period, has died after a short illness. He was 82.

The robust British actor began as a stage actor before transitioning to film. With his gravely voice and rumbling stare he brought an intense realism to his work, rising to fame in such 1960s classics as “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” and “Tom Jones.” He later memorably played Agatha Christie’s legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” and impressed critics and audiences with towering performances in “The Dresser” and “Under the Volcano.” Finney was nominated for five Oscars but never won the prize.

In 1963, Finney played the foundling hero in Tony Richardson’s Oscar best picture winner “Tom Jones.” The role made Finney an international movie star and earned him the first of four best actor Oscar nominations. A year earlier, Finney had turned down the title...

‘Little Monsters.’ (Photo credit: Ben King)

Neon and Hulu have jointly acquired Us rights to Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters in the first major deal for the Australian films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

The dark comedy starring Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England and Josh Gad sparked an overnight bidding war resulting in the deal worth mid-seven figures, Deadline.com reported.

The theatrical release will be accompanied by a massive cross promotion on Hulu’s streaming platform, which has an estimated 23 million subscribers.

The Screen Actors Guild award to the cast of Black Panther, which features Nyong’o, is said to have piqued buyers’ interest in the film which premiered in the Midnight section.

Produced by Snoot Entertainment’s Keith and Jess Calder with Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea, Jodie Matterson and Steve Hutensky and funded by Screen Australia and Create Nsw, the film stars England as Dave,...

In 1961, Shirley Clarke finished directing her first feature film and debuted The Connection at the Cannes Film Festival to much acclaim.

Previously, Clarke had begun her creative career as a dancer before moving on to direct many well-respected short experimental films, such as 1958’s Bridges-Go-Round. Clarke had always aimed her sights high with her career and, despite the improbability of a woman directing an independent feature film in the early 1960s, she accomplished just that.

The Connection was originally a play written by Jack Gelber and performed by New York City’s Living Theatre in 1959. The plot revolves around a group of junkies waiting around one afternoon for their drug dealer to arrive.

Clarke had seen and loved the play, but it was her brother-in-law — theater critic Kenneth Tynan — who convinced her to make a film of it. Money was raised through Lewis Allen, a theater investor who wanted to move into producing films.

(Author Gabriel Hershman has written "Black Sheep: the Authorized Biography of Nicol Williamson" (The History Press). Williamson, who passed away in 2011 at age 75, was an enormous talent. John Osborne called him "The greatest actor since Brando". However, he had many personal demons that sidetracked what should have been a far more successful career. Hershman explores the peaks and valleys of this temperamental man's dramatic life and career and in this article reminds us of why his talents and work should be rediscovered.)

By Gabriel Hershman

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Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and … Nicol Williamson. Just a few of the most influential actors of their generation.

Were you surprised when I mentioned Nicol’s name? He was, at the time of his death, the least well known of that generation of actors. And yet, in my opinion,...