"Oh, Anne! With your small head and pert nose and oversized, ready smile and glossy pixie cut and squeakily tuneful speaking voice, uttering lines like “It came true!” as you gaze at your newly won Oscar with moistened doe-eyes, wearing a powder-pink Prada gown adorned with diamonds and bows:
Why are you so annoying?"
posted by vidur
on Feb 28, 2013 -
140 comments
The
Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood started humbly about 20 years ago. Nollywood movies were shot as cheaply and as quickly as possible, then released straight to VHS. The majority of Nollywood films are still sold offline, in outdoor markets from wheelbarrows or by the roadside from street vendors. In the early 2000s, Nollywood distribution shifted from VHS to discs — and now, the movies are also beginning to stream online.
iROKO, one of the first companies to take Nigerian films online, is carefully tracking the viewing patterns of its growing audience. While
Nigerian internet access is often subpar, streaming services are catering to the international diaspora.
iROKOtv is a hub for streaming movies, with plenty of free movies alongside movies available as part of monthly membership. Their website grew out of
their YouTube channel, which had
over 400 movies online in 2011, though recently they are mainly posting trailers. If you're not sure which movies to see,
Nollywood Forever has plenty of reviews, and
Nollywood.com has a ton of African movie trailers.
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 16, 2013 -
19 comments
"In 1911, the
Saenger Brothers, Abe and Julian, operators of a drug business at Louisiana and Milam streets, decided to enter the amusement field. They were impressed with [Shreveport movie theatre operator E.V. Richards] and induced him to join them in their new field of endeavor ... In 1912 the Saenger Amusement Company was organized with Saenger Brothers, E.V. Richards and L. M. Ash as the stockholders. Richards continued as manager and an expansion policy was adopted which linked
Texarkana, Monroe and Alexandria with
Shreveport and thus formed the first
Saenger chain of theatres in this area ... The company moved to New Orleans where
the Strand Theatre, a building of
magnificent modernity, was formally opened on July 4, 1917 ... In 1924 the company again inhaled deeply before exhaling a new record of expansion that established branches in 12 southern states. In 1926 and '27 further expansion took the company into Cuba, Jamaica, Panama and Costa Rica. During the expansion peak 320 theatres were involved in the holding company." Sadly,
few remain. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns
on Nov 8, 2012 -
8 comments
During the Golden Age of Hollywood and until 1967, mainstream movie studios were
banned by the Production Code from depicting taboo topics like drug addiction, explicit murder and venereal disease, or even showing explicit nudity. But in the 1930's and 1940's, films marketed as "educational" could and did fly under the radar, and three of the best known 'educational' propaganda exploitation films are:
Sex Madness (1935),
Reefer Madness (1936) and
The Cocaine Fiends (1938).
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 15, 2012 -
30 comments
For Roger Ebert,
it's a prayer that made him "more alert to the awe of existence." For Rober Koehler,
it's a kitschy New Age con. For Richard Brody, it perfectly captures the essence of a generation by depicting a character thinking
"back to the musings and fantasies of childhood, which are the product of a wondrous and fantastic view of science formed by popular-science books for children and by the commercial artists whose illustrations adorned them." For Stephanie Zacharek, it's
"a gargantuan work of pretension." For Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, it's
"a creation myth in the guise of a crypto-autobiography" that invents a universe of its own only to destroy it. For J. Hoberman, it's lifeless and dull,
"essentially a religious work and, as such, may please the director's devotees, cultists, and apologists." It spent thirty years in development,
three in editing and, yes,
it contains dinosaurs.
The Tree of Life, written and directed by
famously reclusive Zoolander fan and
"JD Salinger of American movies" Terrence Malick , won the
Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Tomorrow,
it comes out in the United States.
[more inside]
posted by alexoscar
on May 26, 2011 -
64 comments
Finnish YouTube user
Ishexan has uploaded seven English subtitled movies in parts:
Broken Blossoms (
1919),
Aelita (
1924),
The Gipsy Charmer (
1929),
The Tragedy of Elina (
1938),
The Activists (
1939),
The Wooden Pauper's Bride (
1944), and
Sampo (
1959), which is based on the epic poem
The Kalevala. The films are mostly Finnish, though
Aelita is a silent Russian sci-fi film, and
Sampo was a joint Finnish and Soviet production. More film clips inside (mostly Finnish documentaries and "dorky musical numbers").
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 30, 2011 -
12 comments
The
benshi of Japan were live narrators of silent films.
"To many 'silent' cinema fans in Japan,
benshi were a major attraction. It was usually the film that drew people to the theater, but it was often the
benshi which determined which theater a person would attend.
Benshi were huge cultural stars of the time, with
benshi earning as much, if not more, than many actors."
[more inside]
posted by Paragon
on Feb 27, 2011 -
17 comments
Inception (WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW) (
trailer) (
prequel comic) (
cast interviews), the new film about shared dreaming by
Christopher Nolan, has shocked audiences into
gasps of delight and confusion. Two days in, the film,
having impressed critics, is already inspiring elaborate debates about its complex and surreal plotline, with theories and heated discussions
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here.
posted by shivohum
on Jul 18, 2010 -
468 comments
You might have thought
The Phantom Menace was the worst movie ever made, but no - it's Attack of the Clones. And RedLetterMedia is here to tell you
exactly why.
Parts
one,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight, and
nine.
posted by flatluigi
on Apr 4, 2010 -
310 comments
Coloring the Kingdom: the story of the all-female “finishing school” of hand-drawn animation that worked behind the scenes to create the first animated full-length Disney feature, Snow White. (
via.)
posted by 1f2frfbf
on Feb 5, 2010 -
8 comments
He invented or popularized a startling array of the fundamental elements of film: the dissolve, the fade-in and fade-out, slow motion, fast motion, stop motion, double exposures and multiple exposures, miniatures, the in-camera matte, time-lapse photography, color film (albeit hand-painted), artificial film lighting, production sketches and storyboards, and the whole idea of narrative film.
By 1897, in a studio of his own design and construction – the first complete movie studio – his hand forged virtually everything on his screen. Norman McLaren writes, "He was not only his own producer, ideas man, script writer, but he was his own set-builder, scene painter, choreographer, deviser of mechanical contrivances, special effects man, costume designer, model maker, actor, multiple actor, editor and distributor." Also, his own cinematographer, and the inventor of cameras to suit his special conceptions. Not even auteur directors such as Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, John Cassavetes, and Stanley Kubrick would personally author so many aspects of their films."
Inside: 57 films by Georges Méliès, the
Grandfather of Visual Effects.
[more inside]
posted by Paragon
on Feb 3, 2010 -
31 comments
Blindspots is a continually-updated collection of movie reviews based around one very interesting concept -- how accessible they are to the visually impaired.
[more inside]
posted by flatluigi
on Nov 22, 2008 -
25 comments
