Category Archives: Film

Gregory Peck on Abraham Lincoln: ‘A secular saint’

Posted on February 12, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Oscar-winning actor Gregory Peck was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, who was born 215 years ago today. In 1982, he fulfilled a dream when he portrayed the U.S. president in the TV mini-series ‘The … Continue reading →

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How an NHL match led Norman Jewison to make ‘Rollerball’

Posted on January 26, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ‘Rollerball’, Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison’s only film set in the future, also is his most action-packed and violent and it was inspired by an experience at a National Hockey League (NHL) game. 

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Why Norman Jewison quit Hollywood to work in Europe

Posted on January 25, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ‘What do you do?’ asked Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. ‘I make movies,’ said Norman Jewison. The former U.S. attorney general, brother of a slain American president, and the Canadian director ,who was building a successful … Continue reading →

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What movies meant to director Norman Jewison

Posted on January 24, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ’It kinda scares me,’ Norman Jewison said when I asked him in 2011 about the digital revolution in movies and the future of cinema. ‘Everything I see today is so mixed with violence and action. … Continue reading →

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Cary Grant, smooth as silk … on the surface.

Posted on January 18, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – When Cary Grant, born this day 120 years ago, died in 1986, Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel wrote, ‘Some distant day, audiences may come to agree that he was not merely the greatest movie … Continue reading →

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How Ben Kingsley dealt with instant fame after ‘Gandhi’

Posted on December 31, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Ben Kingsley, who turns 80 today, had spent fifteen years on the English stage with occasional small screen roles when Richard Attenborough changed his life by casting him in the title role of his epic … Continue reading →

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Randy Newman at 80: Part One – songwriter

Posted on November 28, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Randy Newman, who turns 80 today, has Academy Awards, Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards and he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s also a very funny man. He told me that … Continue reading →

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Randy Newman at 80: Part Two – Film composer

Posted on November 28, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Randy Newman, who turns 80 today,  has Academy Awards, Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards and he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s also a very funny man. He told me that … Continue reading →

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John Barry on his favourite directors and composers

Posted on November 3, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON — English film composer John Barry, who was born on this day in 1933, won five Academy Awards and created the definitive music for James Bond but he remained very fond of his early British films … Continue reading →

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When Burt Lancaster wrote me a letter …

Posted on November 2, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – When the Burt Lancaster film ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’ (below) came out in 1962, I wrote about it in the Gravesend Reporter, where I was doing my training in Kent, England. Fascinated by the prisoner’s story, … Continue reading →

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