Todd McCarthy Movies

Most Americans -- even those who travel in film spheres -- will not immediately recognize the name of Pierre Rissient, but the lives of cinephiles have been invariably touched by him. A Cannes-based Gaul who enjoyed stints as a theater programmer, critic, and assistant director to Jean-Luc Godard on À Bout de Souffle (1959), Rissient found his niche working alongside eventual succès d'estime Bertrand Tavernier (La Mort en Direct) as a publicist. Armed with an extensive network of press contacts, Rissient swiftly projected the ability to make or break any director with a wave of his hand and an effective blurb. His motto: "It isn't enough to like a film; you have to like it for the right reasons." Those who owed their success to him, to varying degrees, included Sydney Pollack, Abbas Kiarostami, Werner Herzog, and Quentin Tarantino -- not a modest lineup. In the 1970s, Rissient traveled one step beyond his normal publicity work by entering the sphere of filmmaking, albeit in a completely noncommercial capacity. Chief Variety film critic Todd McCarthy helms this biographical portrait of Rissient, featuring an extensive look at his accomplishments. It includes conversations with the likes of Pollack, Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Jane Campion, and many others; Rissient himself also turns up for extensive interviews and discusses the trajectory of his career and the humanist principles behind many of his choices and inclinations. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Chief film critic of Variety and director of the acclaimed Visions of Light (1993), Todd McCarthy spins this love letter to tinseltown. Funded in part by the city of Los Angeles, the film charts Hollywood's rapid evolution from a sleepy town to a gleaming center of glamour in the 1950s to its slow decay during the 1970s. Pieced together from film clips, home movies, newsreel footage, and copious interviews from such figures as Charlton Heston, Robert Redford, Salma Hayek, and Steven Spielberg, this film is a sumptuously photographed, insightful look at Hollywood's legends and history. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The film equivalent of a stroll through the Louvre, the documentary Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography collects interviews with many of modern-day Hollywood's finest directors of photography and is illustrated by examples of their best work as well as scenes from the pictures which most influenced them. A who's-who of cinematographers -- Nestor Almendros, John Bailey, Conrad Hall, Laszlo Kovacs, Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond and others -- discuss their craft with rare perception and insight, paying homage to pioneers like Gregg Toland, Billy Bitzer and John Alton and explaining the origins behind many of the most indelible images in movie history; from Citizen Kane to The Godfather and from Sunrise to Night of the Hunter, many of the truly unforgettable moments in American film history are here in all their brilliance and glory. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This documentary respectfully interviews a number of important American directors who have in one way or another "bucked the system." It also explores the life and work of earlier American mavericks through the tributes, reflections, and recollections of the first group. Prominent among the living directors interviewed are Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, and David Lynch. Among the directors who are discussed are Orson Welles, D.W. Griffith and Samuel Fuller. Clips from the films of these men, and interviews with important actors who have worked with them (e.g. Robert DeNiro) are another feature of this documentary, commissioned by Japanese public television corporation NHK. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Paul Bartel rips off his own Death Race 2000 in this mindless car-crash saga, containing more twisted metal than a bombed-out steel mill. The nominal storyline concerns an illegal auto race from Los Angeles to New York that promises the winner 100,000 dollars. David Carradine is Coy "Cannonball" Buckman, the race leader who drags his girlfriend, Linda (Veronica Hamel), along for the ride. Cade Redman (Bill McKinney) tools around in a loud red Trans Am, while Cannonball's nemesis barrels along in a big, black Plymouth, trying to outsmart Cannonball at every turn and exit ramp. The pile-ups keep building, and the cameos (Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, Sylvester Stallone, Joe Dante, Paul Bartel) keep coming, but Cannonball must make it to New York to collect his winnings. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide