Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille (/dəˈmɪl/; August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker. Between 1913 and 1956, he made seventy features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the Hollywood film industry, and the most commercially successful producer-director in cinema history.

DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. One of his first acting jobs was in 1905 at the Historic Elitch Theatre in Denver, CO. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer. DeMille's first film, The Squaw Man (1914), was also the first feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it a phenomenal hit and it "put Hollywood on the map." The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was both a critical and financial success; it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years.

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are a set of commandments which the Bible describes as having been given to the Israelites by God at biblical Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Hebrew Bible, first at Exodus 20:1–17, and then at Deuteronomy 5:4–21. Both versions state that God inscribed them on two stone tablets, which he gave to Moses. According to New Testament writers, the Ten Commandments are clearly attributed to Moses (Mark 7:10, see also John 7:19).

Modern scholarship has found likely influences in Hittite and Mesopotamian laws and treaties, but is divided over exactly when the Ten Commandments were written and who wrote them.

The commandments include instructions to worship only God, to honour parents, and to keep the sabbath; as well as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, dishonesty, and coveting. Different religious groups follow different traditions for interpreting and numbering them

Terminology

The Ten

The Ten is a 2007 American comedy film, directed by David Wain and cowritten by Wain and Ken Marino, released through ThinkFilm. The film was released on August 3, 2007. The DVD was released on January 15, 2008.

Plot

Ten stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments:

A guy (Adam Brody) becomes a celebrity after falling out of a plane and becoming permanently embedded in the ground thanks to superstar agent (Ron Silver). After a swift rise to stardom, he becomes prideful and arrogant, referring to himself as a god. His career falls apart and he loses everything. His fiancée (Winona Ryder) leaves him for a TV anchor man.

A librarian (Gretchen Mol) has a sexual awakening in Mexico with a swarthy local (Justin Theroux) who turns out to be Jesus Christ. She eventually settles down and marries her coworker (A. D. Miles), but is secretly reminded of her fling with Jesus whenever her family prays before a meal.

A doctor (Ken Marino) kills his patient by leaving a pair of scissors inside her abdomen during surgery. Despite expecting the charges to be dropped because he left the scissors in "as a goof", the judge and jury sentence him to life in prison. The judge also disbars the plaintiff's lawyer, who is then told that he should consider a job as a tour guide at the local nuclear plant.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received three Golden Globe awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for the historical war drama film Glory (1989) and Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in the crime thriller Training Day (2001).

Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999), football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007), and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). He has been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of directors Spike Lee and the late Tony Scott. In 2016 he was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.

American Epic

American Epic is a forthcoming series of music films focusing on the birth of modern music in the USA. It comprises a three-part historical music documentary, a feature-length performance film, and a set of companion album releases. The project is executive-produced by Jack White, T Bone Burnett, and Robert Redford, directed by Bernard MacMahon and written by Bernard MacMahon, Allison McGourty, and Duke Erikson of Lo-Max Films. It is produced by McGourty, MacMahon, and Erikson, and by Bill Holderman of Wildwood Enterprises. The supervising editor is Dan Gitlin.

The films are scheduled to be broadcast on PBS and for the BBC Arena documentary strand in the fall of 2015.

Featuring newly discovered film footage and photographs, American Epic is the result of “some eight years of research” by MacMahon. It examines the period from the 1920s when US record labels explored rural America to find new audiences for music, and recorded “a huge variety of folk, blues, country and ethnic songs”, representing “the DNA of America, its raw expression”. The films feature "exclusive interviews with some of the last living witnesses to that era, when the musical strands of a diverse nation first emerged”.