Life in Hollywood No. 3

An intimate portrait and saga of four film pioneers--Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience.

Lauren Bacall, ombre et lumière

Photographer and make-up artist François Nars reveals his visually stunning inner world in this feature-length documentary by filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland. Mr. Nars takes us on a tour of the fashions, designers and models of '70s Paris, the underground of '90s New York, and the timeless world of cinema, filled with actors, actresses, and directors who have shaped his visual aesthetics.

Well-known canine performers of the 1930s vie for a part in an upcoming movie.

For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, the ultimate self-made star, explores his own screen image and what it took to create it.

This documentary recounts the difficult choice actress Mary Astor had to make after learning her personal, very intimate, diaries had been stolen. The film tells the story of Astor's 1936 child custody case.

The life of Frank Sinatra, as an actor and singer and the steps along the way that led him to become such an icon.

Declassified FBI and CIA documents help director Paul Davids unravel the puzzle of Marilyn Monroe's demise, which was officially ruled a "probable suicide," while providing detailed evidence supporting the conclusion that Marilyn was murdered.

Martin Scorsese is among those paying tribute to Gene Tierney, the Academy Award-nominated American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and '50s.

Irrésistible Gary Cooper

In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and turned on his camera for a series of filmed interviews. (A recut of the 1992 TV miniseries Billy, How Did You Do It?)

Featuring the vintage films, and pictures that made her a phenomenon, BETTIE PAGE, THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI, focuses on the life and times of the legendary model, the times in which she lived, and the impact her career had on the subsequent fifty years.

On June 29, 1967, Jayne Mansfield tragically died at the age of 34. Her stunning blue Buick Electra collided with and was crushed under a semi-trailer truck. With her voluptuous figure and baby-doll face, Hollywood's most photographed actress did everything to become a star, accepting every compromise, going from icon to object. While portraying the actress, this film offers a glimpse into the Hollywood dream factory through the lens of a casting call. Like Jayne herself, who went through countless auditions...

bettie page documentary

A documentary looking at the sex revolution movement that highlights famous modern day Playmates. Pin-up gals, of the 1960's era to modern day, ironically revealed as never before. Behind the glare of the camera, success develops into family controversy as conflict abounds.

In 1933, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, two audacious and visionary directors, dared to create a motion picture that eclipsed everything seen until then: when King Kong was released, it was celebrated as an artistic and technical revolution and became the first myth created by the young cinematic art.

Nearly fifty years after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains an absolute icon, the image of a superficial and sensual blonde forever etched in the collective imagination. But behind the legend lies a more complex reality: that of Norma Jeane Baker, a young woman abandoned by all who constantly lurched from euphoria to the depths of despair. Throughout her life, Marilyn attempted to free herself from her image and access her truth. You will discover the little-known episodes from the last years of the star's life. Why did she abandon Hollywood and move to New York under an assumed name in 1954? How did she end up locked away in a psychiatric clinic after filming "The Misfits"? What did her diaries contain? What was her relationship with her psychoanalyst? Finally, under what circumstances did this 36-year-old woman meet her death? Using numerous testimonies and archival material, the teams paint a portrait of a mysterious and tormented personality.

A legend of the Hollywood Golden Age, Gregory Peck (1916-2003) had an exemplary career, working under some of the greatest directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli... Portrait of an actor with irresistible charm and strong political commitments.

The unexplained deaths of Elizabeth Short, a.k.a "The Black Dahlia", in 1947 and of Geneva Hilliker Ellroy in 1958, had a profound impact on the psyche of James Ellroy, today's greatest crime writer. Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD cop, reveals everything about Georges Hodel, his own father as well as the perpetratror of those two unsolved murders, the most notorious ones in 20th century America. Steve Hodel retraces this amazing investigation in which genius and horror, Hollywood and the Marquis de Sade, incest and surgery, are blended into the grimmest of scenarios.

The astonishing story of the genesis, production, worldwide success, and legacy of King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, a landmark of cinema, one of the most influential motion pictures in history.