ON THIS DAY in 1429, Joan of Arc, patron saint of France, marched triumphantly into Paris during the Hundred Years War. In 1957, Otto Preminger’s film, SAINT JOAN, starring Jean Seberg and adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, told the story of this and other events in her life.
Cyprus Film Archive (Photo credit: Cyprus Film Archive)
When I think of state-of-the-art vaults stacked with films, I think of the studios and a variety of university and film museum archives. It turns out that there’s a government bunker in Virginia that houses a whole lot of movie history.
The U.S. created the film copyright designation 100 years ago — on August 24, 1912. Just weeks after the film copyright system was created, films were being submitted for copyright protection, and they are still coming in. The Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation is a “Noah’s Ark effort” to save America’s treasure chest of film history.
I admit it: I love to make lists. My desk and kitchen counter are strewn with lists scratched out on the backs of envelopes, in notebooks, and on little colorful sticky notes. It’s not pretty, but I can’t stop.
Some of the lists are incredibly odd and confounding, like this morning’s post of a “list” of two — yes, two — action movies. Does that even count as a list? Does it mean that the lister thinks there are only two action movies worth watching? I can only shake my head at the meaning of this.
And there are other banal lists like, “5 Films I Want to Watch.” I say, just go ahead and watch them, sir, and don’t bother me with that information.
But nestled inside these random lists you can find some lovely little gems, in categories like “Hopelessly Romantic” list and “Top Bollywood” or “Movies That Changed My Life.”
In the right-hand column of the list page, there is a helpful list of categories for the lists, which includes “Lists by IMDb Editors” (a nice resource for lists from Sight & Sounds, the awards, the critics, etc.), and films by categories, such as “Film Noir,” “Horror,” “Wesetern,” and all the rest.
And best of all, you get create and post your own lists, however wacky or insightful they may be. I must get back to them….
ON THIS DAY in 1758, King Frederick the Great’s Prussian army defeated Russian troops at the Battle of Zorndorf during the Seven Years War. Segments of Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film, BARRY LYNDON, with Ryan O’Neal, were set against this conflict.
A WESTERN set in the 1800s would seem to have little or nothing in common with a Christmas movie set in the 1940s. One is about a dangerous outlaw seeking revenge on the sheriff who sent him to jail. And the other is about an angel getting his wings. So I would have thought up until last Monday night. That’s when I saw–for only the second time in my life–HIGH NOON, the 1951 Fred Zinnemann classic, and began comparing the two films (as well as realizing I was surely not the first moviegoer to do so).
Maybe it was the appearance of character actor Thomas Mitchell (playing a trusted friend in both films) early on that made me think of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Or maybe it was seeing a happy couple having their wedding day abruptly interrupted. In NOON’s case, the imminent run-in with a dangerous outlaw; in LIFE’s case, a dangerous run on George Bailey’s father’s bank. A curious coincidence. But then there are other similarities–some more obvious than others–between the two.
The hero is an American everyman. A man with ideals, character, and dreams–dreams of romance with a lovely, wholesome woman (Grace Kelly–a Quaker; and Donna Reed), unhappy with his life in the small town.
Good evening. A great many of Hitchcock’s characters had brushes with death. Jimmy Stewart, for example, was asked, somewhat unkindly, to exit his apartment via the REAR WINDOW. Which, unfortunately for him, was not at ground level. But sometimes Hitch’s protagonists were more concerned about paint brushes than the art of survival. This quiz will test your knowledge of the art of Alfred Hitchcock. Specifically, the artful works contained within his films.
(*The quiz title was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest:“Something wrong with your eyes?” “Yes”, says the sunglass-clad Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), “They’re sensitive to questions”. At an art auction, Vandamm (James Mason) asks Roger about the purpose of his visit: “Could it be an overpowering interest in art?”)
ON THIS DAY in 1944, General Patton’s Third Army joined French forces to begin the Liberation of Paris. The 1965 film, IS PARIS BURNING?—with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Orson Welles, and a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Gore Vidal—documented this event.
Inland Empire, Music Box Theater Chicago (Photo credit: lemonkey)
A conversation with the Music Box Theatre’s head projectionist, Doug McLaren, is featured in this week’s Chicago Reader.
Ben Sachs writes, “The Music Box makes a point of showing both new and old films, so the theater has no intention of scrapping its 35-millimeter projectors as many of the multiplexes have.”
Artist Andrew DeGraff is a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film, NORTH BY NORTHWEST. He’s also a terrific artist, as is evident with his detailed, graphic homage to Hitch’s masterpiece. DeGraff:
I’ve loved “North by Northwest” since the first time I saw it – the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota. So – I thought I’d throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie – the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn’t find reference for (but for “North by Northwest”, I figured I’d take a little liberty).
Also not included are the 1212 Michigan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood. Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.
Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the ’51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the ’52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in. I took color from the footage to get some of that “technicolor” feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass’ opening credit arrows to show the action.
As a big fan of the movie myself, of course, I’ve taken the liberty of identifying the locations DeGraff has so beautifully and painstakingly illustrated. Be sure to check out some of his other, excellent work here.
CIT Building, 650 Madison Ave., New York City
Plaza Hotel, 5th at 59th, NY
Townsend Mansion (Old Westbury Gardens), Long Island
Glen Cove, NY, police station
Plaza Hotel
United Nations Building, NY
Grand Central Station, NY
LaSalle Street Station (414 S LaSalle St.), Chicago
Prairie Stop, along US Hwy. 41 (actually Bakersfield, CA), central Indiana
Ambassador East Hotel, 1301 N State Pkwy., Chicago
Chicago Midway Airport, Northwest Airlines terminal
Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Visitor Center, Rapid City, SD
Area near Mt. Rushmore
Vandamm residence (actually a movie set) near Rapid City
The movie The Skeptic movie got horrible, terrible reviews when it was released.
I’ll take a bunch of teenagers terrorized by chain-saw-wielding zombies any day – New York Times
Old-fashioned in the worst sense, Bardwell’s ghost story is heavy on Freud, light on fear – Los Angeles Times
You know you’re in trouble when the most appealing element your film is Tom Arnold. – PopMatters
I think the problem is that they didn’t watch this movie alone with all the lights off in an apartment that has had its share of weird bumps in the night.
Tim Daly plays a guy whose estranged aunt dies and leaves him her house, where he deceides to spend a couple weeks to get away from his clingy wife who wants to see him cry. (Side note: Tim Daly is best known for being the voice of Superman in the latest animated version. His voice is so handsome, it made it a little hard to concentrate on the character.)
The creepiness starts right away as he hears whispers, sees images of a strange woman and hears the sound of someone falling down a flight of stairs. The film reminded me a lot of The Haunting, except The Haunting’s main character wasn’t a total prick who has a great wine celler. Like The Haunting the house is the main character.
Overall, I found The Skeptic completely engaging and really don’t know why there were so many horrible reviews against it… It has an 8% on the Rotten Tomatoes site. That’s only slightly above the Larry The Cable Guy movie. Even the user reviewers panned it and really hated the ending… not to give it away but I found it actually scary and touching. So go figure… don’t watching this with anyone because you probably are going to be mocked for your choices… just chalk this up to a guilty, ghosty pleasure.
ON THIS DAY in 79 A.D. (the feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire), Italy’s Mount Vesuvius began erupting, eventually leading to the destruction of the city of Pompeii. In 1959, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, starring Steve Reeves, and written by Sergio Leone, documented the events.
What do we make of the coincidences, synchronicities, signs, and symbols that appear in our daily lives?
Just the other night as Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony began its outdoor concert, a very tall woman with very high, tightly curled hair rolled by on her mobility scooter, made a sudden right turn, and parked directly in front of me, unapologetically blocking my view.
The next night, I was watching Donald Sutherland in the 1973 classic thriller DON’T LOOK NOW. He was sporting the same sort of big tight curls that the woman had from the night before.
What did it mean to see two such improbable hair-dos in just 48 hours?
I still am wondering, waiting, and watching.
I had seen the film DON’T LOOK NOWby director Nicolas Roeg almost 40 years ago, and I remembered it mostly for three reasons — (1) there was an incredibly hot sex scene (which is still a hot, by the way); (2) that I didn’t understand what happened; and (3) there was a surprise appearance by a freaky dwarf with freaky makeup.
I wanted to see this movie again because I was recently waxing about the stunning and bright beauty of Venice as it was filmed in the 1955 love story, SUMMERTIME. In DON’T LOOK NOW, I remembered that Venice was portrayed as sinister, dangerous, damp, and dark. Which version of the city was right?
And that is the enigma of the narrative in DON’T LOOK NOW. Which version is right? Do we really understand what we are seeing, what we are experiencing? The story, based on a novella by Daphne du Maurier, reminds us that it’s always smart to beware…that the signs are there. But you just may get them wrong.
In a nutshell, the idyllic marriage of John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura (Julie Christie) is shattered by the drowning death of their daughter. Prior to his daughter’s death, Sutherland’s character has a prescient moment and senses that something bad is about to happen. He is too late.
Fast forward past mourning, and the couple is in Venice where John is overseeing the restoration of a cathedral. They meet a duo of sisters, one of whom is blind and possesses the gift of “second sight.” She feels that Sutherland’s character also “has the gift.” And she understands his struggle with accepting this burden. “It’s a curse and a blessing,” she says. She tells the couple that she sees their deceased daughter, who is now with them, and that the little girl is happy, but her spirit is also warning them to leave Venice. John scoffs. But later, when he does give in to this idea of having “second sight,” his interpretation of what he is seeing is dead wrong. The foreboding image he witnessed at the beginning of the film, which he thought was about the danger facing his daughter, was really about a danger facing him.
The atmosphere, the mystery, and the intrigue make it a pleasure to take a look again at DON’T LOOK NOW.
I just have to figure out what the hair thing is all about…..
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Poseidon’s Underground did one of their fascinating posts about an obscure movie… Anyone ever see it? Michael Douglas, Jack Warner, Brenda Vaccaro, screenplay by Rod McKuen (sort of) and directed by Anthony Newley! Crazy
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