LATE winter is traditionally a time to celebrate great acting, as the most distinguished performances of the previous year parade before us on their long march to the Oscars. At the moment, accordingly, those of us with deadlines and airtime to fill are busy trumpeting the artistry of Colin Firth and Annette Bening, Natalie Portman and Christian...

IT had been 38 years since William Friedkin last trained a camera on the boxy red-brick apartment complex on Stillwell Avenue, just a few blocks north of the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn. But on a bright, windy day last spring, Mr. Friedkin was back with a crew -- shooting high-definition video this time -- to revisit the fictional residence...

Scarecrow The road movie may have been the defining genre of the 1970's, and Jerry Schatzberg's ''Scarecrow,'' made in 1973, is a definitive example. Starring a young Al Pacino (whom Mr. Schatzberg had promoted to stardom with his excellent, now mysteriously unavailable ''Panic in Needle Park'') and Gene Hackman (hitting his stride as a leading man...
Gene Hackman (født 30. januar 1930 i San Bernardino, Californien, USA) er en amerikansk karakter skuespiller. Han vandt en Oscar for sin præstation som politimanden i The French Connection (1971) og endnu en for sin rolle som sheriffen i De nådesløse (1992).