Dennis Hopper
Birthday: 1936-05-17 Place of Birth: Dodge City, Kansas, USA
Synopsis
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954, and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). During the next 10 years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films. He directed and starred in Easy Rider (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer. "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, Easy Rider became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion." Film critic Matthew Hays notes that "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper." He was unable to build on his success for several years, until a featured role in Apocalypse Now (1979) brought him attention. He subsequently appeared in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He directed Colors (1988) and played the villain in Speed (1994). Hopper's later work included a leading role in the television series Crash. Hopper's last performance was filmed just before his death: The Last Film Festival, slated for a 2011 release. Hopper was also a prolific and acclaimed photographer, a profession he began in the 1960s. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Acting
Hopper/Welles
Captures a 1970 meeting between the movie industry titan Orson Welles and the then-rising star Dennis Hopper, who had just made Easy Rider.
Blue Velvet Revisited
When David Lynch was making his film Blue Velvet, German filmmaker Peter Braatz was also on set, shooting documentary footage with a Super 8 film camera. Now, on Blue Velvet's 30th anniversary, Braatz presents his footage, along with still photographs, as a "meditation" on Lynch's work.
Along for the Ride
A documentary chronicling the filmmaking career of Dennis Hopper.
Llyn Foulkes One Man Band
This documentary follows painter and musician Lyn Foulkes from age 70 to 77 as he labors to complete two astonishing tableaux that demonstrate his outsider's perspective and eye for evocative imagery. As his reworking of one piece stretches into its second decade, we watch Foulkes' righteous contempt for the establishment erode, replaced by a yearning for the recognition he's due.
Scene Missing
The unfinished documentary about the making of Dennis Hopper's mostly unseen feature film The Last Movie (1971).
Alpha and Omega
Two young wolves at opposite ends of their pack's social order are thrown together into a foreign land and need each other to return home, but love complicates everything.
Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder
The poet and painter, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, is among the world's living monuments to arts and letters. For well over a half century, Ferlinghetti helped shape the currents of poetry and literature with his forceful engagement with society and an ideological position that often found him at odds with the political currents of his day. Ferlinghetti's quiet, behind the scenes demeanor and disarming mien may have assuaged, or even fooled, certain opponents, while in reality he was a literary mercenary, a rebel at the forefront of our own cultural revolution.
Crash
Crash is an American television drama series that tells the story of how the lives of how several very diverse Southern Californians intersect.
Swing Vote
In a remarkable turn of events, the result of the presidential election comes down to one man's vote.
Hell Ride
Two rival bikers gangs, the Victors and the Six-Six-Six's, refuel their decades-old rivalry.
Elegy
Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his life -- which he indicates is a state of "emancipated manhood" -- thrown into tragic disarray by Consuela Castillo, a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher.
Chelsea on the Rocks
Chelsea on the Rocks celebrates the personalities and artistic voices that have emerged from New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel. Once considered an untouchable, impenetrable tower for writers, artists, musicians and mavericks, it has been recently claimed as a boutique hotel venture for a management company that shows disregard for its formidable history. –Cannes Film Festival
An American Carol
A cynical anti-American Hollywood filmmaker sets out on a crusade to abolish the 4th of July holiday. He is visited by three spirits who take him on a hilarious journey in an attempt to show him the true meaning of America.
Sleepwalking
When her boyfriend is arrested for marijuana possession, Joleen Reedy and her 11-year-old daughter, Tara, take refuge with Joleen's aimless brother, James. Joleen soon runs off with a truck driver, and James is unable to meet his responsibilities. After Child Protective Services takes possession of Tara, James abducts her from a foster home, and the two travel from California to Utah, where his abusive father lives.
Bananaz
A documentary on the cryptic cartoon band, Gorillaz. From 2000-2006 director Ceri Levy filmed the creators behind the scenes, revealing the first drawings, animations and music, and following the evolution of the group through to the album Demon Days.
The Cool School
How LA Learned to Love Modern Art. A lesson in how a few renegade artists built an art scene from scratch.
The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose
A look back on the weird and wasted career of the Holy Modal Rounders.
Wanderlust
A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd and Tom McCarthy.
10th & Wolf
A former street thug returns to his Philadelphia home after a stint in the military. Back on his home turf, he once again finds himself tangling with the mob boss who was instrumental in his going off to be a soldier.
Memory
Dr. Taylor Biggs is haunted by a past that's not his own. A hallucinatory drug gives him the power to see visions of vicious crimes, visions made all that more disturbing when he discovers that the murderous memories may belong to the father he never knew . Biggs's mother, whose own failing memory makes her powerless to help him unravel his family history.
Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi
For stylish airs, no one came close to Christian Hosoi. At his peak in the mid-80s he was the "rock star" of skating, pulling down money that rivaled Tony Hawk's paycheck. Innovating crazy vertical maneuvers like the "Christ Air," Christian knew how to stoke an audience. Then it all came crashing down when Hosoi plowed into self-destruction, getting hooked on crystal meth and hitting rock bottom with a prison sentence for drug smuggling. Completely annihilated, Christian turned to the Bible for answers and found new strength. With lots of action footage and a slammin' soundtrack, this gritty, inspiring film goes deep inside the world of skateboarding as seen through the incredible highs and lows of this legend's life, revealed through never-before-released home movies and interviews with Christian's family and friends including top skaters Jason Lee, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Mark Ragowski and many more!
Gorillaz | Demon Days Live
Demon Days: Live at the Manchester Opera House is a Grammy Award nominated live DVD by the Gorillaz, released the 27th of March 2006 in the UK. It compiles the live performances from the 1st of November to the 5th of November 2005 at the Manchester Opera House that recreated the Demon Days Studio album. It was directed by David Barnard and Grant Gee.
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol.
E-Ring
E-Ring is an American television military drama, created by Ken Robinson and David McKenna and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, that premiered on NBC on September 21, 2005. The title of the show refers to the structure of The Pentagon, which is configured in five concentric rings, from "A" to "E", with E being the outermost ring. Before any military action can be taken anywhere in the world the mission must be planned and approved by the most important ring of the Pentagon, the E-ring. This is where the more high-profile work is done, all operations must be legally approved and the green light given by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The show starred Benjamin Bratt as Major James Tisnewski, a former Delta Force operator and Dennis Hopper as Colonel Eli McNulty, as officers working in the E-ring of the Pentagon in the Special Operations Division – planning and co-ordinating covert US special operations actions around the globe.
The show struggled from the onset because it was up against ABC's Top 20 hit Lost, CBS's Top 30 hit Criminal Minds, FOX's Top 10 hit American Idol and the network's Top 30 hit Unan1mous. Although NBC gave it an earlier time slot which led to better ratings, the show was pulled from the lineup during the February sweeps and officially canceled at the NBC Upfront on May 15.
Land of the Dead
The world is full of zombies and the survivors have barricaded themselves inside a walled city to keep out the living dead. As the wealthy hide out in skyscrapers and chaos rules the streets, the rest of the survivors must find a way to stop the evolving zombies from breaking into the city.
