30-660: 2011 book by Robert K. Elder The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark [REDACTED] Author Robert K. Elder Language English Genre Non-fiction Publisher Chicago Review Press Publication date 1 January 2011 Publication place United States Media type Print ( Paperback ) Pages 304 ISBN 978-1-55652-825-5 The Film That Changed My Life (also known as The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in
60-993: A Cause and Mean Streets John Landis on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Kevin Smith on Slacker Chris Miller on Sleeper Neil LaBute on The Soft Skin George A. Romero on The Tales of Hoffmann Frank Oz on Touch of Evil John Waters on The Wizard of Oz See also [ edit ] The Best Film You've Never Seen References [ edit ] ^ The Film That Changed My Life by Robert K. Elder , Filmchangedmylife.com, accessed January 16, 2011. ^ Google Books ^ USA Today ^ MSNBC External links [ edit ] The Film That Changed My Life Official website Time Out Chicago Excerpts from Author's Column Zimbio Interview with Robert K. Elder by Bob Andelman CT Atlanta Culture Surfing review Filmspotting Podcast interview with
90-400: A brief period. Teresa insists on coming with them. Charlie borrows a car and they drive off, leaving the neighborhood without incident. A car that has been following them suddenly pulls up, with Michael at the wheel and his henchman, Jimmy Shorts, in the backseat. Jimmy fires several shots at Charlie's car, hitting Johnny in the neck and Charlie in the arm, causing Charlie to crash the car into
120-488: A directing project given to him by early independent film maker Roger Corman , Boxcar Bertha , this was Scorsese's first feature film of his own design. Director John Cassavetes told him after he completed Boxcar Bertha : "You've just spent a year of your life making a piece of shit." This inspired Scorsese to make a film about his own experiences. Cassavetes told Scorsese he should do something like Who's That Knocking at My Door , which Cassavetes had liked. Mean Streets
150-408: A few days and is increasingly getting frustrated, thinking Johnny is taking advantage of him and that he is not going to pay up, with Charlie promising to convince Johnny. To his surprise, Johnny insults him and tells him he is not going to pay back the money. Michael lunges at Johnny, who pulls a gun. After a tense standoff, Michael walks away and Charlie convinces Johnny that they should leave town for
180-418: A fire hydrant. Teresa is injured in the crash, Johnny is seen in an alleyway staggering toward a white light which is revealed to be a police car, and Charlie gets out of the crashed vehicle and kneels in the spurting water from the hydrant, dazed and bleeding. Paramedics take Teresa and Charlie away while Johnny's fate remains unknown. Apart from his first actual feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door , and
210-469: A modern surround sound mix as is common even for films that originally had mono audio. A May 18, 2015 release in the UK altered the color timing, and included a lossless stereo audio track. The film received a 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection on November 21, 2023. Second Sight is releasing the 4K restoration on 4K Ultra HD in the UK. Scorsese used mainly vintage pop songs as
240-458: A podcast network at the Sun-Times , hosting "The Big Questions," one of four initial shows. In July 2018, Elder was featured on Billings Gazette . It recollects the moment that, "spurred a lifelong love of concert photography," and provoked Elder's journalism career. Elder has written, researched, edited and/or contributed to over 20 books including: Mean Streets Mean Streets
270-456: A triumph of personal filmmaking" and "dizzyingly sensual". Vincent Canby of The New York Times reflected that "no matter how bleak the milieu, no matter how heartbreaking the narrative, some films are so thoroughly, beautifully realized they have a kind of tonic effect that has no relation to the subject matter". Time Out magazine called it "one of the best American films of the decade". David Denby , writing for Sight and Sound , praised
300-686: A two-book deal. The book It Was Over When: Tales of Romantic Dead Ends was available two years later. In 2013, he was named the Lake County Editor for the Chicago Sun-Times . He went on to become editor-in-chief of Sun-Times Media Local, overseeing 36 of the company's suburban publications. The next year, he was named vice president of Digital Content, founding a guest editor program featuring people such as Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins , Presumed Innocent author Scott Turow , and astronaut Jim Lovell . Elder also started
330-564: A weighted average of 96 out of 100 based on eleven critics, the film received "universal acclaim". Mean Streets was released on VHS and Betamax in 1985. The film debuted as a letterboxed LaserDisc on October 7, 1991, in the US. It was released on Blu-ray on April 6, 2011, in France, and in America on July 17, 2012. The home media releases use the original mono audio track, rather than
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#1732798603120360-757: Is a 1973 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese , co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin , and starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel . It was produced by Warner Bros. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 2, 1973, and was released on October 14. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Johnny Boy" Civello. The film
390-613: Is an American journalist, author, and film columnist. He is currently the President and CEO of the Outrider Foundation . He has written more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the death penalty and movies to Ernest Hemingway and Elvis Presley. During his academic career at the University of Oregon, Elder ran the campus publication The Oregon Voice . He annotated and archived Ken Kesey 's personal papers at
420-601: Is hampered by his feeling of responsibility toward his reckless younger friend John "Johnny Boy" Civello, a small-time gambler and degenerate who refuses to work and owes money to many loan sharks . Charlie is also having a secret affair with Johnny's cousin Teresa, who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition — especially by Charlie's Uncle Giovanni, a powerful mafioso , and is told to stay away from her. Giovanni also wants Charlie to distance himself from Johnny, saying " honorable men go with honorable men." Charlie
450-404: Is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Scorsese sent the script to Corman, who agreed to back the film if all the characters were black . Scorsese was anxious to make the film so he considered this option, but actress Verna Bloom arranged a meeting with potential financial backer Jonathan Taplin , the road manager for The Band . Taplin liked the script and was willing to raise
480-461: Is torn between his devout Catholicism and his illicit Mafia work for Giovanni. Johnny becomes increasingly self-destructive and disrespectful of his Mafia-connected creditors. Failing to receive redemption in the Church, Charlie seeks it through sacrificing himself on Johnny's behalf. At Tony's bar, a loan shark and friend named Michael comes looking for Johnny again to pay up: he has been doing so for
510-734: The Chicago Film Critics Association , he has also taught film classes at Facets Film School . Elder has worked for DNAinfo Chicago as its managing editor, Stop Smiling magazine as a contributing editor, Crain Communications as the director of Digital Production Development and Strategy, 1871 Chicago as a business mentor, Blockchain News as a publisher and president, the Garage Fellows program at Northwestern University's Startup Incubator,
540-556: The Chicago Sun-Times inducted Mean Streets on his Great Movies list and wrote: "In countless ways, right down to the detail of modern TV crime shows, Mean Streets is one of the source points of modern movies." In 2013, the staff of Entertainment Weekly voted the film the seventh greatest of all time. In 2015, it was ranked 93rd on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest American films. James Gandolfini , when asked on Inside
570-422: The $ 300,000 Scorsese wanted if Corman promised, in writing, to distribute the film. The blaxploitation suggestion came to nothing when funding from Warner Bros. allowed him to make the film with Italian-American characters. Mean Streets was filmed from April 1973 to June 1973. Mean Streets received immense critical acclaim. Pauline Kael was among the enthusiastic critics, calling it "a true original, and
600-532: The Actors Studio (season 11, episode two) which films most influenced him, cited Mean Streets , saying "I saw that ten times in a row." Likewise, director Kathryn Bigelow said that Mean Streets was one of her five favorite movies. In an interview with GQ , Spike Lee named Mean Streets as one of his influences, along with On The Waterfront . In 2011, Empire listed the film as #1 on its "50 Greatest American Independent Films" list. In 2022,
630-988: The Dark ) is a non-fiction collection of interviews compiled by American journalist, author and film columnist Robert K. Elder . The book presents interviews with thirty famous directors who share stories about the movies that affected their career paths and directing styles. Chapter list [ edit ] Edgar Wright on An American Werewolf in London Rian Johnson on Annie Hall Danny Boyle on Apocalypse Now Bill Condon on Bonnie and Clyde Richard Kelly on Brazil Peter Bogdanovich on Citizen Kane John Dahl on A Clockwork Orange Henry Jaglom on 8½ Brian Herzlinger on E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Alex Gibney on The Exterminating Angel Kimberly Peirce on The Godfather Steve James on Harlan County, USA Austin Chick on Kings of
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#1732798603120660-759: The Garage , on the board of advisors, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as the Chief Digital Officer. As of May 2022, Elder is the president and CEO of the Outrider Foundation . In June 2006, Elder debunked the long-believed Chicago legend that Del Close had donated his skull for use as a stage prop to the Goodman Theatre . While Close had willed his skull to the theater to serve as Yorick in productions of Hamlet ,
690-584: The Road Guy Maddin on L'âge d'Or Michel Gondry on Le voyage en ballon Michael Polish on Once Upon a Time in America Arthur Hiller on Rome, Open City Pete Docter on Paper Moon Atom Egoyan on Persona Gurinder Chadha on Purab aur Pachhim and It's a Wonderful Life Richard Linklater on Raging Bull Jay Duplass on Raising Arizona John Woo on Rebel Without
720-471: The author Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life&oldid=1247956221 " Categories : 2011 non-fiction books Books about film Chicago Review Press books American non-fiction books Books of interviews Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Robert K. Elder Robert K. Elder (born January 20, 1976)
750-458: The delivery of the skull never happened, due to medical and legal issues, and it was cremated along with the rest of Close's body. In June 2009, he founded the Web 2.0 company Odd Hours Media LLC, which launched the user-generated sites ItWasOverWhen.com and ItWasLoveWhen.com. Both sites attracted more than one million hits within a few months. Later that same year, Sourcebooks signed the sites to
780-473: The film appeared on " Variety' s 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: " Mean Streets is a powerful tale of urban sin and guilt that marks Scorsese's arrival as an important cinematic voice and features electrifying performances from Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro." According to Metacritic , which assigned
810-666: The film's acting, saying that Scorsese had used improvisation "better than anyone in American movies so far." He concluded by saying that: "Scorsese's impulse to express all he feels about life in every scene (a cannier, more prudent director wouldn't have started his film with that great De Niro monologue), and thus to wrench his audience upwards into a new state of consciousness with one prolonged and devastating gesture, infinitely hurting and infinitely tender. Mean Streets comes close enough to this feverish ideal to warrant our love and much of our respect." Retrospectively, Roger Ebert of
840-732: The university's Knight Library. Elder has published in The New York Times , Premiere , The Los Angeles Times , The Boston Globe , Salon.com , The Chicago Tribune and The Oregonian , among other publications. In the late 1990s, Elder worked for several publications and changed his byline to "Robert K. Elder" after working with another Rob Elder at the San Jose Mercury News . He has taught journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism , as well as feature writing and entertainment reporting at Columbia College Chicago . A former member of
870-564: Was based on events Scorsese saw almost regularly while growing up in New York City's Little Italy . The screenplay began as a continuation of the characters in Who's That Knocking . Scorsese changed the title from Season of the Witch to Mean Streets , a reference to Raymond Chandler 's essay " The Simple Art of Murder ", where Chandler writes: "But down these mean streets a man must go who
900-636: Was the first of several collaborations between Scorsese and De Niro. It was also Scorsese's first critical and commercial success. In 1997, Mean Streets was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress , who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Charlie Cappa, a young Italian-American in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City,
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