Word: hollywood
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Part of it is pure nostalgia. At the height of scooter mania in the 1950s, the sleek, steel-framed bikes were symbols of romantic escapism. Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn putted through Rome on a Vespa in Roman Holiday; it was a favorite toy of Hollywood's elite, including Gary Cooper and Jayne Mansfield. In 1960s England, while big, grease-sputtering Harleys were ridden by leather-clad Rockers, elegant Vespas were the signature of their archrivals--and regular rumble opponents--the fashionable Mods...
...look is the scene in clubs around the country. Vintage scooter riders with a penchant for the Who, '60s soul and contemporary Britpop bands like Blur and Oasis are let into many of these clubs for free--it's good for the atmosphere. Piper Ferguson, a promoter at Hollywood's Cafe Bleu, says that on some nights as many as 100 twentysomethings--sporting shiny sharkskin suits, pointy Beatles boots and tattoos--line up their bikes in the club lot. But Vespa fanatics include businessmen, middle-aged women and just regular guys. Hairstylist Robert Winslow, 29, moved from a roomy loft...
...Sure, Hollywood can occasionally throw a scare into an audience. The ravenous extraterrestrial in Alien. Jack Nicholson going bonkers in The Shining. The thought of a sequel to Big Daddy. But the scariest cinematic moments, for the most part, have come courtesy of low-budget independent films that, like The Blair Witch Project, arrive unheralded from outside the Hollywood mainstream to chill us with their grungy lack of artistry. These films disorient moviegoers by removing the usual Hollywood guideposts that subtly reassure us it's only a movie: recognizable stars, slick production values and a respect for ordinary dramatic conventions...
...They Came from Within. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, directed by Tobe Hooper in 1974, was almost comical in its killer-on-the-loose hysteria, but it set a new standard for slasher films to come. The masterpiece of the genre remains John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). Despite some Hollywood credentials (including a couple of name stars), it was shot for a mere $325,000 and had the deep-focus single-mindedness of a true horror exploiter. Imitators came thick and fast after that; by the time of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1982), the genre had descended into...
Regarded, until now, as a Hollywood fringe player, Artisan hopes to define itself as a brash alternative to the established indies. "We don't want to be another Miramax or New Line," says co-president Amir Malin, formerly co-president of October Films. "We want to be involved with hip, off-center movies that skew toward younger audiences between 18 and 35." Artisan, which is run by the triumvirate of Malin, longtime agent Bill Block and Mark Curcio, a former consultant to Artisan's majority backer, Bain Capital, rose in 1997 from the ashes of a firm that held video...