69 posts tagged with cinema and movies (View popular tags)
Lorenzo Semple, 84, has been a screenwriter for more than 50 years; his credits include "Papillion," "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor." Marcia Nasatir, 81, is a longtime agent and production executive, was the first female VP of production at United Artists, and produced films like "The Big Chill" and "Hamburger Hill." Together, they are the "Reel Geezers," offering irresistible film reviews on YouTube. To wit: Superbad, Iron Man, Sex and the City, Lars and the Real Girl, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
posted on Jun 11, 2008 - View this thread
Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films (official site w/Flash) Filmmaker Arthur Dong covers the good (YT), the bad and the players (link to Flash video clips) in his latest award-winning documentary. Related MeFi post.
posted on May 4, 2008 - View this thread
"But, it's a post on film noir!" I told her. She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me. I knew that caving into my desires meant I might lose her. But I didn't care. I went out to the kitchen to make coffee -- yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. I knew she'd be back.
posted on Jan 11, 2008 - View this thread
The Unsung Joe: Where bit-part actors go when they die. Biographies of the most obscure micro-stars of 1940s and '50s cinema, all remarkably well-researched and richly illustrated.
posted on Dec 11, 2007 - View this thread
Though best known for his role as hunky Lance Rocke in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the actor/author was also distinguished by a career as a beefcake pin-up boy. Sadly, he has passed away at the age of 67.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread
Though not as commonly known, Alfred Hitchcock's late British period is nonetheless an intriguing look at what delights were to come from his later work.
Secret Agent (1936 | Wikipedia | Download)
Young and Innocent (1937 | Wikipedia | Download)
Jamaica Inn (1939 | Wikipedia | Download)
posted on Nov 25, 2007 - View this thread
Top 10 Most Disturbing Movies of All Time.
posted on Nov 7, 2007 - View this thread
In 1974, Martin Scorsese interviewed his parents on film, prompting them to discuss their life together as well as their Sicilian ancestry. The resultant documentary was entitled Italianamerican. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
[Inspired by...]
posted on Sep 4, 2007 - View this thread
The 50 Greatest movie sex scenes of all time (with clips)
posted on Aug 23, 2007 - View this thread
Plotbot is a web-based collaborative screenwriting application where you can write a screenplay with as many or as few people as you like. Adopting the wiki approach to screenwriting, each element is editable by any member of a project. You can also comment on, delete or restore any element. For all of the "filmic storytellers" on MeFi.
posted on Jul 30, 2007 - View this thread
EU Tube: sharing the sigh(t)s and soundsmoans of Europe. Human rights around the world? 700 views. A smoke-free Europe? 2300 views. 44 seconds of sex scenes from award-winning, popular European movies? 1,900,000 views. The European Commission just launched its own YouTube channel, using the oldest marketing trick ever, all for 350 Euros per clip (link includes the list of films), even though the usual suspects aren't happy.
posted on Jul 4, 2007 - View this thread
Roscoe Lee Browne, class act from beginning to end. The first time I ever noticed him was in The Cowboys, a western I've watched many times just to hear him speak.
posted on Apr 13, 2007 - View this thread
The most effective Surreality is that which is entirely Unintentional (15-minute Google video). A delightful balance between amusing & disturbing. Harvested from Doctor Macro's MGM Shorts page. Previously.
posted on Apr 1, 2007 - View this thread
Gang rape. Animal cruelty. Exploitation. Cannibalism. Put these elements together and you have Cannibal Holocaust, arguably one of the most well known exploitation films ever made. [Some of the following links are arguably NSFW]. Released in 1980, Cannibal Holocaust was a film so shockingly violent that it saw director Ruggero Deodato arrested by Italian authorities on the mistaken belief that he had made a snuff film and saw it being banned in almost every western country in the world for the actual deaths of several animals in the film. Although Deodato now regrets the introduction of the animals and although this ban has now been lifted in many of the countries that originally censored it, the horror of this landmark film is still as powerful as it ever was, a point evidenced by the often visceral reviews the film has garnered in its time. Whilst an official sequel has never been made (there have been at least two unofficial sequels), following his cameo appearance in Grindhouse movie Hostel II, Deodato has said an official sequel is in the works with an expected release date of 2009.
posted on Feb 18, 2007 - View this thread
It seems apropos today to post about Bollywood and its style of romance and love. Songs are often the equivalent of a bedroom scene, a fact I didn't believe until it was pointed out to me that there were numerous instances of extremely suggestive songs followed by pregnancy. Bollywood also uses songs to arouse patriotic fervour, a trait that master music director A.R. Rahman takes to new heights with his release of the classics Vande Mataram [Motherland, I salute thee] and Jana Gana Mana [India's national anthem]. But even before him, there were classics of public service advertising such as "Mile sur tera hamara..." a fuzzy video but inspiring nonetheless of the myriads of voices and languages spoken in India. Other loves that hindi cinema celebrates through its songs is that of a mother for a child, god, love across cultural boundaries and what is politely termed as "conjugal love".
posted on Feb 14, 2007 - View this thread
Atlas Shrugged is again in the pipeline to be made into a movie. BACK in the 1970s Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of “The Godfather,” first approached Ayn Rand to make a movie of her novel “Atlas Shrugged.” But Rand, who had fled the Soviet Union and gone on to inspire capitalists and egoists everywhere, worried aloud, apparently in all seriousness, that the Soviets might try to take over Paramount to block the project.
posted on Jan 20, 2007 - View this thread
Anders als die Andern ("Different From the Others") [IMDB|Wikipedia] was one of a series of films on sexual issues directed by Richard Oswald in the late 1910s and sponsored by Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science. The 1919 movie (photo reconstruction), "the first major gay-themed film ever made," and "the world's first homosexual emancipation film," was made in part to protest against Paragraph 175, which was added to Germany's Reich Penal Code in 1871 and prohibited sex acts "between persons of male sex."
[more inside]
posted on Dec 15, 2006 - View this thread
The most inspirational film ever has an underexamined dark side, including a 1947 FBI memo that branded the film as subversive and "a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers." The film's script was influenced by the liberal populism of the 1930s, used suicide as a plot point, and was criticized by a Christian Right website for "lax attitudes on alcohol and drunkenness." The film also inspired a feminist art project on "bad girl" Violet Bick and a dead-on parody of a right-wing Christian movie review. Meanwhile, Jimmy Stewart paid back Frank Capra for reviving his post-WWII career by spying on him for the FBI. The hidden backstory behind It's A Wonderful Life.
posted on Dec 15, 2006 - View this thread
Too Wong Foo: There's Mixed-Up Surf Nazis Invading A Plane! In honor of Snakes On A Plane slithering into theaters this coming weekend, Boston.com offers eleven perfectly descriptive, or overly cryptic, but all memorable movie titles. How would you retitle your favorite movie to be as descriptive as Snakes On A Plane?
For example, The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down?
posted on Aug 14, 2006 - View this thread
Perfection and Eraserhead. Discussing Singing in the Rain and Goodfellas with prisoners. The link between Pasolini, Blind Willie Johnson and Carl Sagan. If you like hanging out at the corner of Film and Word, you might enjoy spending time in the archives at Your Humble Viewer, a wide-ranging, well-written, funny and literate film blog.
posted on Jul 31, 2006 - View this thread
Mobile Cinema: From the little to the big; DIY to HOLY (pics) COW (pics)! Coming attractions has never seemed so literal.
posted on Jun 13, 2006 - View this thread
"Ten Favorite Offbeat Musicals" by Jonathan Rosenbaum
posted on Apr 4, 2006 - View this thread
It's still about the means of production, you see — but in the overdeveloped world, at least, it's not about the production of goods and services anymore. Today's virtual revolutionary is happy to leave all that to capitalists. The virtual revolutionary wants to control the production of meaning — representations of herself and her world as she wants them to seem. Or be. Or whatever.
That's all she asks.
Or, rather, takes.
Thomas de Zengotita welcomes the big world of the small screen. Peter Bogdanovich, instead, still mourns that last picture show.
posted on Mar 26, 2006 - View this thread
Three new ways of thinking about David Cronenberg (director of Videodrome, Dead Ringers, etc.). A documentary filmmaker, an avant-garde filmmaker, or maybe just a guy who looks at couples and probably wonders what they look like having sex. Kind of par for the course.
posted on Mar 20, 2006 - View this thread
She made movies. They were cheap, They were shot in her apartment. She didn't film in sound, and so, when characters spoke, rather than sync the sound, she often cut away to objects in the room, or the feet of those who were speaking.
Her films had titles like Nude on the Moon, Bad Girls Go to Hell, and Blaze Starr Goes Nudist.
She was Doris Wishman
posted on Mar 1, 2006 - View this thread
Say "cheese" — stinky, expensive, overprocessed American cheese. The venerable Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its set design for the Seventy-Eighth Academy Awards® Telecast. This year's edition is described as "an homage to old movie theaters" by designer Roy Christopher. "It's a no-holds-barred return to classic Hollywood glamour." Others may beg to differ.
posted on Feb 22, 2006 - View this thread
"He was someone who acted out our psyches ... He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen... the history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."
A Valentine for Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces. (BugMeNot for the first link; more inside)
posted on Feb 18, 2006 - View this thread
Odd Films: Hungry for films on food? Pining for movies about dead pets? Can't get enough substance-abuse flicks? Perhaps you want to catch a glimpse of Elvis/Nixon/Nixon&Elvis? All these and many more are included in this somewhat crudely presented, but surprisingly comprehensive list of strange and/or indy cinema.
posted on Dec 10, 2005 - View this thread
The Emperor's Bunker. "The Japanese, with sadness and irony, stressed that Hirohito couldn't even speak properly. This was partly to do with the fact that he didn't have to speak - people spoke in his name and he was isolated from real life".
"The Sun", the third part in Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Men of Power' tetralogy after the gloom of Moloch (1999), about Hitler and Eva Braun, and the despairing tones of "Taurus" (2001), focused on the wheelchair-bound Lenin in his death throes, "The Sun" seems almost upbeat. This, after all, is a film about reconciliation. More inside.
posted on Sep 13, 2005 - View this thread
"It has always been as if I carry chaos with me the way others carry typhoid. My purpose in writing is to transcend my existence by illuminating it."
Crime novelist Edward Bunker, who died last Tuesday at age 71 (LATimes obit), became at 17 the youngest inmate at San Quentin after he stabbed a prison guard at a youth detention facility. It was during his 18 years of incarceration for robbery, check forgery and other crimes that Bunker learned to write. In 1973, while still in prison, he made his literary debut with "No Beast So Fierce", a novel about a paroled thief James Ellroy called "quite simply one of the great crime novels of the past 30 years" and that was made into the movie "Straight Time" starring Dustin Hoffman. Also a screenwriter ("Runaway Train"), Bunker appeared as an actor in nearly two dozen roles, most notably as Mr. Blue in "Reservoir Dogs." (more inside)
posted on Jul 25, 2005 - View this thread
Vintage & Retro Posters
French/Italian
Marc Chagall
Old Movie Posters via
posted on Jul 12, 2005 - View this thread
I don't know what "independent film" means. At a time when the Weinsteins are trying to extricate themselves from Disney, it seems an appropriate question to ask. There are Indie films (non-industry money) that are
supposed to imitate fancy hollywood films, there are new studios being opened outside of LA by Wealthy Christians in Denver hoping to convert through CS Lewis movies and there are Garden State, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine etc. which are like other Hollywood films: have stars, and studio money but are marketed as "Independent Films." What makes these independent? Finally, and seemingly too infrequently, there are privately financed and self-distributed unusual films like
Assisted Living which despite their obvious merits and the critic's adoration are presumably ignored by the studios, blasted by the brain-numbing EW and distributed instead by the two young first-time filmmakers
Why can't we see more non-hollywood and non-hollywood espousing independent ART on the screen? Why do we let every other multi-million dollar romantic comedy be sold to us as "indy" just because it has a quirky soundtrack or aesthetic sensibility. What can we do about it? I'm going to the movies. You?
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread
Cinema Therapy : I recently discovered that there is actually a field of study for something that I have long felt existed - a way to access blocked emotions and memories simply through movies. More info: Books, Newsletters, and an Index of films recommended by issues.
If movies can indeed "change the way we think and feel" for good, does this not lend credence to those who claim that movies contribute to negative behaviors ("inciting violence", "contaminating society's values") and even crimes? Or does the recognition of the good that films can do actually assist in the battle against those who blame films for negative influences? After all, "Courts do not award extra dollars to entertainers for the unforeseen positive byproducts of their work. Why penalize them for the less fortunate consequences of what they do?"
Have you ever felt a theraputic effect from seeing a film?
posted on Mar 11, 2005 - View this thread
"Unsatisfactory movie viewing can only be attributed to human error." The Denver Post examines the way technology can help viewers find their next favorite movie.
posted on Jan 30, 2005 - View this thread
Victorian era projectors and directors.
posted on Jan 17, 2005 - View this thread
Remember the Noir Genius Exam? Wanna know the the answers?
posted on Jan 7, 2005 - View this thread
Have you seen badmovies.org? It has plot summaries, still photos [.jpg], sound clips [.wav], and most amusingly, videos [.mpg]. Here is the full list.
posted on Nov 29, 2004 - View this thread
Movie Mistakes. A truly massive and comprehensive site by and for movie enthusiasts, not just the fussy ones either.(via Something Like That)
posted on Oct 18, 2004 - View this thread
Join Uncle Ben and the Rice family as they come to terms with the True Meaning of Christmas in Christmas Lights in Pilaf. [.mp4 video] Warning: This trailer makes little to no sense.
posted on Oct 7, 2004 - View this thread
Screenhead: Funny web shit curated by Dong Resin. Also Jalopnik, concerning cars, and Kotaku, for gamers. All your vice are belong to Nick Denton. Dot com entrepreneurialism scaled to blog size seems to be working.
posted on Oct 4, 2004 - View this thread
cin-o-matic, it's a tool to help people decide what movies to go see or rent. The interface is simple and is growing on me, the url is hard to share by word of mouth, and it integrates with netfilx. [by and via dack]
posted on Aug 9, 2004 - View this thread
The poet of nightfall Twentyfive years ago, film director Nicholas Ray died in New York. Like Jacques Tati and Samuel Fuller, Ray did a lot of living before he ever got around to filmmaking: he was of part of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship, a devotee of southern folk music, an avant-garde theatre director. He had made Rebel Without a Cause and survived James Dean, and the title of the film seemed to dramatise his terrible, self-destructive battles with Hollywood. His films (They Live By Night, In a Lonely Place, On Dangerous Ground, Johnny Guitar, The Savage Innocents, King of Kings) were in love with imprisoned life, but the dark edge of mourning was always there, too. He was idolised by the young Cahiers du Cinema critics who would become the directors of the New Wave. François Truffaut once noted: "There are no Ray films that do not have a scene at the close of day; he is the poet of nightfall, and of course everything is permitted in Hollywood except poetry." Contrasting Ray and Howard Hawks, he added: "But anyone who rejects either should never go to the movies again, never see any more films". Jean-Luc Godard offered another sweeping panegyric: "There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforth there is cinema. And cinema is Nicholas Ray. These days, lucky Chicagoans can admire one of Ray's greatest works, Bitter Victory -- the film about the dangerous games men play with macho self-images... (more inside)
posted on Jun 18, 2004 - View this thread
Fed up with anti-piracy warnings in your local cinema? Why not take a picture?
posted on Jun 17, 2004 - View this thread
AP reports that Michael Moore's upcoming film "Fahrenheit 9/11" was given an 'R' rating today by the MPAA. The same MPAA that says violence is much more acceptable than sex. The same MPAA that has close ties to the FCC, running roughshod over First Ammendment freedoms. The same MPAA headed by Jack Valenti who played himself in Freakazoid! a cooky cartoon about superheroes that save Washington D.C. Email him if you disagree at jvalenti@mpaa.org or call the MPAA 818-995-6600 x396.
posted on Jun 14, 2004 - View this thread
TCM is playing tribute this month to Archie Leach, better known to the world as Cary Grant. The range of films, the types of roles, the co-stars. Makes you long for another era of american film-making. Of interest to you architect types might be Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House of 1948, with the fabulous
One of the most interesting items to come out of the TCM documentary is Cary's embracing LSD in the early pre-illegal tests of it.
posted on Jun 1, 2004 - View this thread
In the Mood for Rapture. "Forget the completion anxiety that attended Wong Kar-wai's new film 2046 — four years in the gestating, with scenes still being shot a few weeks ago — what 2046 makes unavoidably clear, is that Wong Kar-wai is the most romantic filmmaker in the world.
Love, the playwright Terry Johnson wrote, is something you fall in. Wong's films make art out of that vertiginous feeling. They soar as their characters plummet". It is a sequel of sorts to Wong's In the Mood for Love. It is the story of a writer: in his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention: to recapture their lost memories. (more inside)
posted on May 24, 2004 - View this thread
Silent Movies.
posted on May 18, 2004 - View this thread
Done Deal: Script and Pitch Sales. Find out which scripts are being scooped up these days. Read the site and anxiosly await Krakatoa:
During the 1883 volcanic explosion off the coast of Java, social, political and cultural orders were also in major turmoil. But during all this turbulence, a romance is able to develop.It's like Pearl Harbor and Volcanon, but with a twist!
Iranian actress, Hedieh Tehrani, is one of the most popular stars who, unlike the previous actresses, usually portrays a strong and independent women in her works (See more). On the other side is Niki Karimi who once was the hottest actress in the country, showing a rather traditional image of the Iranian women. What is this change of taste telling about the Iranian society? See more stills from Iranian movies.
posted on Mar 8, 2004 - View this thread
Masters of Cinema is a film blog 'for discerning cineastes the world over,' with news on directors, films, dvd releases, aspect ratio controversies, and many links to director tribute sites. They also have sites dedicated to Robert Bresson, Carl Dreyer, Ozu Yasujiro, and Andrei Tarkovsky. (The last two previously posted by hama7 and I, but it's nice to see everything together)
posted on Mar 8, 2004 - View this thread
"One of the cruellest movies in the history of the cinema." David Denby reviews The Passion of the Christ in this week's New Yorker.
posted on Feb 23, 2004 - View this thread
the separate cinema archive has for almost three decades been the only source dedicated to the art and fascinating history of African Americans in film. The archive of over 25,000 movie posters, lobby cards, stills and material from over a dozen foreign countries, spans the past century of important historic black cinema.
posted on Feb 5, 2004 - View this thread
"This is frankly one of the greatest films ever made." Harry Knowles reviews "Return of the King."
posted on Dec 13, 2003 - View this thread
Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture A major UK archive of all things cinema-related, ranging from magic lanterns and transparencies to games and cigarette cards. Registered users can build and display their own exhibitions from the website's images.
posted on Nov 16, 2003 - View this thread
Skinema. It's not what you think.
posted on Jul 17, 2003 - View this thread
eddie bracken, 1940s slapstick comedian, passed on over the weekend. the star of hail the conquering hero and the controversial miracle of morgan's creek, bracken was often regarded as the onscreen alter ego of pioneering writer/director preston sturges. unfortunately, he correctly predicted that his appearance at film forum would be his last.
posted on Nov 20, 2002 - View this thread
Director John Frankenheimer is dead. I don't want to make this out to be one of those "random celebrity dies and is suddenly hailed as a genius" things, but Frankenheimer's made quite a few damn good movies (and, yes, some bad ones). While his later works weren't nearly as great as some of his earlier films, his gift for filming action never went away: his 1998 film Ronin wound up on several lists of the "best car chases on film". He was supposed to helm the upcoming Exorcist prequel, but failing health forced him to step aside. Despite the dodgy source material, I would have really liked to see Frankenheimer's take on it. He'll be missed.
posted on Jul 6, 2002 - View this thread
The industry-standard effects magazine Cinefex has made some articles from their archives viewable online. One of them is this lengthy and fascinating look at E.T. from a 1983 issues.
posted on Jul 2, 2002 - View this thread
I was watching Charlie Rose this afternoon and to my delight, he was interviewing my old favorite James Garner. Since I was young, I've considered Mr. garner to be the walking epitome of cool. He's been Bret Maverick(twice!), Jim Rockford even God . I always conside Burt Reynolds to be an pale imitation of Garner. Don't tell me I'm the only Garnerite in MeFi land.
posted on Mar 27, 2002 - View this thread
Was John Wayne A ... Welshman? In that case, I nominate Johnny Cash as the No.1 American icon. Unless it turns out he's English or something.
[Inspired by jpoulos's, Kafkaesque's, Optamystic's and others' recent celebrations - elsewhere on MetaFilter - of the great man.]
posted on Feb 27, 2002 - View this thread
Here's Entertainment Weekly's Top 5 Surprisingly Romantic Films for Valentine's Day. (Star Man!?) This begs the question: who actually reads Entertainment Weekly? Oh, and what are YOUR Top 5 Romantic Films for Valentine's Day?
posted on Feb 11, 2002 - View this thread
This article covers an interview with an actress about her role in a film she recently starred in. It's the first time I've heard of the film.
At the expense of sounding prudish, what is the difference between this film and pornography?
Her mother is quoted as saying she "loved" the movie. Her boyfriend was "very supportive" of her "going to work every day and performing oral sex on her co-star". Hello?
Getting paid for having sex sounds more like prostitution than "art". That goes for the lead actor as well, by the way.
Are we supposed to believe that this is legitimate movie content? What do you think?
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread
Real Cinephiles Prefer Reading "Cahiers du Cinema" to Going to the Movies: I stopped reading Cahiers du Cinema - the famously dogmatic French film journal where Godard, Truffaut, Resnais and Rohmer cut their teeth - a few years ago, when it got too arty-farty for its own good. Well, it's slowly becoming essential again. Their website is trés chic, intelectually challenging and a welcome antidote to the usual online movie-reviewing clowns. Or is it still a load of pretentious rubbish? (In French, but with a lovely intro, lots of cool stills and a Quicktime interview, in English, with underrated director Paul Verhoeven)
posted on Dec 5, 2001 - View this thread
R2-D2 Beneath the Dome is cute, funny, silly and the most despicable ploy to hype a movie ever in the history of cinema. Most importantly, it diminishes the stature of a great man, by failing to mention Kenny Baker's contribution to the successful phenomenon. It's like talking about Indiana Jones "behind the scenes" without mentioning Harrison Ford.
posted on Nov 26, 2001 - View this thread
The Movie Spoiler is a good site that'll save you a few bucks. [Warning: It contains spoilers and does reveal movie endings.]
posted on Sep 4, 2001 - View this thread
Center of the World , a new film by director Wayne Wong has a really immersive, erotic website. There seems to be an increasing number of film sites like these that don't just post the trailer and a film information but extend the viewers experience by actually making the site an extension of the film itself.
posted on Apr 24, 2001 - View this thread
Open casting call for "Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back"
posted on Jan 22, 2001 - View this thread
Tom Hanks = the Jimmy Stewart of our day? one of Salon's useful popular media pieces, but nothing you couldn't read on Sunday Arts section of the Times, such pieces being the Holy Ghost of Salon's Trinity (see inside for the Father and the Son)...
posted on Jan 12, 2001 - View this thread
Heeeeeeeere's Harry!
posted on Aug 21, 2000 - View this thread
