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Movie Answer Man

Movie Answer Man (11/16/2003)

Q. A few critic's groups have cancelled their annual awards in protest of Jack Valenti's ban on sending out DVD screeners to industry and press. Isn't this counter-productive to their cause? Such awards are the perfect way to remind viewers…

Roger Ebert

Foolish moves doomed to fail

Occasionally the movie industry comes up with a truly boneheaded idea. Jack Valenti unveiled a doozy last week: He announced that signatories of the Motion Picture Association of America would be forbidden to send out the thousands of advance DVD…

Movie Answer Man

Movie Answer Man (10/05/2003)

Q. Considering the mixed reaction Elia Kazan got for his Lifetime Achievement Award--due to his artistic brilliance but lousy moral judgment--do you think Leni Riefenstahl will be acknowledged during the "in memory of" presentation at the next Academy Awards? If…

Interviews

Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan dies

Elia Kazan, who presided over a revolution in American acting and directed films that won 20 Academy Awards, died Saturday at 94. His films included such towering achievements as "A Streetcar Named Desire," "On the Waterfront" (1954), "A Face in…

Movie Answer Man

Movie Answer Man (09/21/2003)

Q. I spoke to a Japanese person who saw "Lost in Translation," and she agreed with me that the film took a heavy-handed, anti-Japanese stance. Of course, the story was about two strangers in a strange land who didn't have…