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Emanuel Levy | |
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| Alma mater | Columbia University [1] |
| Employer | New York University |
| Partner(s) | Rob Remley, Cunningham dancer (1980–death, 2011) |
Emanuel Levy [2] is an American film critic and emeritus professor of sociology and film of Arizona State University. For the past 45 years, he has taught a wide variety of courses in sociology of film and popular culture at Columbia University, New School for Social Research, Wellesley College, UCLA, and Arizona State University.
Levy grew up in Tel Aviv, after his family emigrated to Israel from Europe. After military service as combat officer, he attended Tel Aviv University, where he obtained a B.A. degree in Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science. He pursued M.Phil and Ph.D. (in distinction) in Sociology of the arts (focusing on film and theater) from Columbia University in 1975 and 1978, respectively.[ citation needed ]
Levy has taught at Columbia University, New School for Social Research, Wellesley College, Arizona State University and UCLA Film School. Levy currently[ when? ] teaches in the department of cinema studies at New York University.[ citation needed ]
Levy is the only critic in the U.S. who's a voting member of eight groups: Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA, Golden Globes), Los Angeles Film Critics (LAFCA), Critics Choice Awards (CCA), National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO), Gay and Lesbian Critics Association, Online Film Critics Society and the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI. He was the president of LAFCA from 1996 to 1999, during which he initiated, with the support of his v.p. Manohla Dargis (now chief film critic of the New York Times) the move of the annual awards event from a modest luncheon to a more lavish evening kudo.[ citation needed ]
His first book, The Habima—Israel's National Theater, 1917–1977, launched his writing career[ citation needed ] and was the winner of the 1980 National Jewish Book Award. [3] His critical chronicle of the Oscar Awards, And the Winner Is: History and Politics of the Academy Awards was published in 1986. He has published updated editions of that book, including Oscar Fever in 2000, and All About Oscar in 2003.
Of his nine books, his magnum opus is considered to be Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film' (1999), a 600-page text that was semi-finalist for the National Book Awards, and still is the most widely read film and culture book in the history of NYU Press.[ citation needed ] The book examines the various social, political, economic and artistic forces that have shaped the emergence of low-budget American indies as a distinct institutional cinema, operating parallel to and against Mainstream Hollywood Cinema.[ citation needed ]
In his 1994 comprehensive biography of George Cukor, Master of Elegance: The Director and his Stars (William Morrow), he disputed the commonly held belief (or myth) that Cukor was fired from the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind, because Clark Gable did not think he was "macho" enough to direct. Instead, Levy offers as reasons the conflict between him and producer David O. Selznick over the screenplay (which was not ready when shooting began) and pacing and tempo, which Selznick thought were not right.[ citation needed ]. Cukor had worked on pre-production of that film, including the casting of all the roles for two years, 1937-1939. 39 Levy wrote the first comprehensive biography of Vincente Minnelli, Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer in 2009. In this book, he argued that Minnelli's sexual identity is a crucial variable in understanding the kinds of narratives and visual styles of his films, particularly his melodramas, such as The Bad and the Beautiful , and the more personal and intimate Tea and Sympathy.[ citation needed ]
In 2000, he co-organized with the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a tribute weekend to the influential critic Andrew Sarris, coinciding with the publication of Citizen Sarris: American Film Critic, Essays in Honor of Andrew Sarris. On that occasion, Sarris chose to screen The Shop Around the Corner and Shoot the Piano Player , films that were followed by panels headed by noted critics Richard Schickel and Oscar-winning director Curtis Hanson.Levy has appeared in numerous films, documentaries, TV channels, including shows on the BRAVO network and the Independent Film Channel, as well as radio programs on NPR.[ citation needed ]
Levy has written for various newspapers and magazines, including American Film , The Advocate , Out , The Jerusalem Post , The New York Times Magazine and Los Angeles Times . Over the past 15 years, he has been a regular contributor to the film section of Financial Times . While in Arizona, he ran the ASU Film Society, and then the Scottsdale Independent Film Festival. He was a senior critic at Variety for over a decade, and the chief film critic of the UK publication Screen International for 3 years. Levy established a website of film reviews and essays in 2003, www.EmanuelLevy.com Cinema 24/7, which has global appeal. As of 2022 [update] , the site contained over 30,000 film reviews, profiles, interviews and Oscar commentaries, written by Levy and a staff of writers.[ citation needed ]
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director and producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick, and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.
Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, better known by his stage name Anthony Quinn, was an American actor. Born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and a first-generation Irish-Mexican father, he was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in numerous critically acclaimed films both in Hollywood and abroad. His notable films include La Strada (1954), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), The Message (1976), Lion of the Desert (1980), Jungle Fever (1991) and Seven Servants (1996). He also had an Oscar-nominated title role in Zorba the Greek (1964).
Andrew Sarris was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is one of the very few performers awarded a non-competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director. He directed the classic movie musicals Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953), and Gigi (1958). An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning Best Director for Gigi. In addition to having directed some of the best-known musicals of his day, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; the couple were the parents of Liza Minnelli.
Gigi is a 1958 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and processed using Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Eastmancolor film process Metrocolor. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette. The film features songs with lyrics by Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, arranged and conducted by André Previn. Costume design was done by Cecil Beaton.
Born Yesterday is a 1950 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor, based on the 1946 stage play of the same name by Garson Kanin. The screenplay was credited to Albert Mannheimer. According to Kanin's autobiography, Cukor did not like Mannheimer's work, believing it lacked much of the play's value, so he approached Kanin about adapting a screenplay from his own play. Because of legal entanglements, Kanin did not receive screen credit.
Gaslight is a 1944 American psychological thriller film directed by George Cukor, and starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury in her film debut. Adapted by John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, and John L. Balderston from Patrick Hamilton's play Gas Light (1938), it follows a young woman whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing that she is descending into insanity.
James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.
Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, primarily directed by Vincente Minnelli, with segments directed by Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, and George Sidney, the film's original director before Minnelli took over. Other directors that are claimed to have made uncredited contributions to the film are Merrill Pye, Norman Taurog, and Charles Walters. It stars many MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams.
A Star Is Born is a 1937 American Technicolor drama film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell, and starring Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore.
John Brahm was a German film and television director. His films include The Undying Monster (1942), The Lodger (1944), Hangover Square (1945), The Locket (1946), The Brasher Doubloon (1947), and the 3D horror film, The Mad Magician (1954).
Richard Warren Schickel was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for Time from 1965–2010, and also wrote for Life and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His last writings about film were for Truthdig.
James Lewis Hoberman is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at The Village Voice in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic from 1988 to 2012. In 1981, he coined the term "vulgar modernism" to describe the "looney" fringes of American popular culture.
Keeper of the Flame is a 1942 American drama film directed by George Cukor, and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is adapted from the 1942 novel Keeper of the Flame by I. A. R. Wylie. Hepburn plays the widow of a famous civic leader who has died in an accident. Tracy portrays a former war correspondent who intends to write a flattering biography of the dead man, only to find that his death is shrouded in mystery. Screenwriter Stewart considered the script the finest moment of his career, feeling vindicated by the assignment as he believed that Hollywood had punished him for years for his political views. Principal filming began in the last week of August 1942, four months after the release of the novel, published by Random House. The picture was filmed on a sound stage, with no location shooting. Hepburn had already begun a relationship with Tracy, and his heavy drinking led her to become his vigilant guardian during the filming.
Adrienne Fazan was an award-winning American film editor who first started cutting films in 1933. She worked on many MGM films, including The Tell-Tale Heart (1941), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Singin' in the Rain (1952), and Kismet (1955).
Spencer Tracy (1900–1967) was an American actor. His film career began in 1930 with Up the River ; and ended in 1967, with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner alongside Sidney Poitier and his longtime screen partner, Katharine Hepburn. Within this 37-year career, Tracy starred in 75 feature films and several short films.
Gerald Ayres was an American film studio executive, producer and screenwriter. He is known for his work as producer of The Last Detail (1973) starring Jack Nicholson and as writer of Rich and Famous (1981) the last film directed by George Cukor.
A list of books and essays about Frank Capra:
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