MetaFilter posts tagged with cinema

Classic Cinema Online

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:28:11 -0800

Classic Cinema Online. A ton of old movies watchable in an embedded player.

Creative Destruction-Hollywood Division

joetrip — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:39:27 -0800

Will the future of cinema be live or remixed? "There is a level of panic in Hollywood I haven’t seen for a while." So begins USC Professor Jon Taplin, also a producer of films by Martin Scorsese. Taplin speaks about Francis Ford Coppola's recent interview where the director states that "I think the cinema is going to live off into something more related to a live performance in which the filmmaker is there, like the conductor of an opera used to be." Taplin bemoans "the dearth of imagination in Hollywood", while the comments section lights up with various prognostications.

The Window Page

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:03:55 -0800

The Virtual Window Interactive is a toy based in, and an advertisement for, The Virtual Window, a theoretical Visual Studies text authored by Anne Friedberg, who passed away this week at age 57. If you're like me, the first thing you'll realize is that your native aspect ratio is faulty already.

Alfred Hitchcock on The Tomorrow Show

dhammond — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:34:50 -0800

"Long thought to be lost or destroyed, this complete recording of one of the few hour long interviews of Alfred Hitchcock has been found." From the description on the YouTube page:

Originally broadcast as one of the first Tomorrow Shows with Tom Snyder in the Fall of 1973. This recording appears to be from a second repeat of this show broadcast on Memorial day, 1980. The VHS (SP) tape itself was found to be in excellent condition. While properly stored in a climate controlled environment it apparrently had not been played in decades. Great care has been taken to make the digital transfer.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Making the Real World Look as Good as Cinema

netbros — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:34:23 -0800

DSLR News Shooter is a new photo site featuring the use of the latest HD-dSLRs like the Canon Eos5DmkII, 7D and Nikon D300s for news, documentary and factual shooting. By Guardian news photographer Dan Chung, it's a place for professionals, educators, students and industry figures to discuss the practice and the art of cinematic photography in documenting the real world. For example, the time-lapse and slow-motion film of the recent 60th anniversary parade of the PRC. Other places to look for information and discussion of DSLR video are the Planet5D blog, and filmmakers such as Vincent Laforet and Phillip Bloom. (previous 1, 2)

Polanski arrested

acb — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:55:58 -0800

Film director Roman Polanski, who won numerous awards for films like Chinatown and The Pianist, has been detained for extradition to the US, whilst travelling to Switzerland to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zürich Film Festival. Polanski spent the past three decades in exile in France, which (unlike Switzerland) has no extradition treaty with the US, after being convicted of having raped a 13-year-old girl at a party. He was nonetheless able to sue for libel in the UK despite being a fugitive there. The victim has asked for charges to be dropped, though Polanski has, until now, been a wanted man in the US. If he is extradited, he faces up to life imprisonment.

Architecture through the cinematographic lens. The visual fusion between the third and the seventh arts.

ocherdraco — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:25:31 -0800

The "Third&Seventh" project is "A full-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces." In other words, Alex Roman has created a series of CG images and short films, based on real places (like this short film that depicts Louis Kahn's library at Phillips Exeter Academy), with a remarkable level of realism and beauty. (via)

Bavarian Film Studios in Munich

Brosef K — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:33:00 -0800

Hitchcock's first in 1925. Kubrick in 1957. Sturges in 1963. Bergman, Huston, Ophüls, and Wilder. Sound of Music in 1965. Willy Wonka in 1971. Also, Monty Python made their Fliegender Zirkus specials there in 1971 and 1972. Film history and all that. Sure. But to my mind, the best part of the Bavarian Film Studios is being able to go inside the actual submarine from Das Boot. Or you can ride on that flying dog thing from Neverending Story... if that's how you roll.

William Friedkin's "Sorcerer"

Joe Beese — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:01:31 -0800

How does a director follow up the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time*? (*adjusted for inflation) He remakes a French classic - taking an international cast to a Caribbean nation ruled by a military dictatorship, where hurricanes, irascibility, other difficulties take him far over a budget already large enough to be shared by two studios. The result is his personal favorite among his films. But deceptive marketing and cute robots contribute to its making back less than half of its costs. (previously)

Videocracy

acb — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:11:30 -0800

A new documentary by a Swedish-based Italian filmmaker examines how media mogul turned two-time president Silvio Berlusconi's 30-year grip on Italian television has shaped the country, its politics, its culture and society. Erik Gandini's Videocracy, which screens at the Venice Film Festival, starts 30 years ago, when Berlusconi introduced a quiz show whose female contestants stripped for the camera, and charts 30 years of showgirls, celebrities, reality TV shows and Berlusconi's rise to political power, and interviews characters of the system, including a talentless but fame-hungry TV contestant, a fascist-sympathising media fixer, and a paparazzo/extortionist turned celebrity. More details here and (with a trailer) here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both Berlusconi's private TV channels and the state broadcaster RAI have refused to run advertisements for the film.

Der ewige Jude

Joe Beese — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:33:04 -0800

The day after Kristallnacht, Hitler said: "It was necessary not to make propaganda for violence as such, but to explain certain matters of foreign policy to the German people in such a way, that the inner voice of the people all by itself gradually would call for violence." Towards that end, Goebbels commissioned and closely supervised the production of a propaganda documentary titled Der ewige Jude - "The Eternal Jew". Few if any of the inhabitants of the Łódź Ghetto who appear in its footage survived the war. Though it was exhibited throughout Germany and occupied Europe, popular audiences avoided the film's gruesome images of swarming rats and animal slaughter - preferring instead the anti-Semitic melodrama Jud Süß. In 1958, the film was still considered so dangerous that it required the intervention of the Customs Department to permit Amos Vogel to show it at his Cinema 16. Today, the film can be seen at the Internet Archive here. (previously)

Top 10

vronsky — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:15:48 -0800

Criterion Collection Top Ten Lists as chosen by Jonathan Lethem ll Steve Buscemi ll Patton Oswalt ll Peter Cowie ll Jean-Pierre Gorin ll Diablo Cody ll D. A. Pennebaker ll John Lurie ll Paul Schrader ll Nathan Lee ll Ricky Jay ll and many more.

Alien Resurrection?

Mintyblonde — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:31:35 -0800

Fox have offocially announced that Ridley Scott has officially signed on to direct the new 'Alien' prequel. He certainly did a great job on the original but can he match his previous truimph? Given the number of projects he has in gestation (heh) maybe any celebration is premature...

Yasmin Ahmad (1958 - 2009)

divabat — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:22:21 -0800

Acclaimed Malaysian film and advertising director Yasmin Ahmad has passed away at 11:52pm Saturday night at the age of 51, after collapsing from a stroke at a media presentation the day before. She leaves behind a legacy of film that captures the modern multicultural spirit of Malaysia, winning international festival awards and local hearts while at the mercy of conservative censors. Some examples of her work: Tan Hong Ming Family Funeral Sepet (Trailer) Talentime (Trailer) Muallaf (Trailer)

Art house films for £3 a pop

muggsy1079 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:41:54 -0800

Art house films for £3 a pop. Stream them from here

Michelangelo Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point"

Joe Beese — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:37:08 -0800

Pauline Kael called it "a huge, jerry-built, crumbling ruin of a movie". Roger Ebert called it "such a silly and stupid movie... our immediate reaction is pity". Few directors of Michelangelo Antonioni's stature have followed a film as acclaimed as Blowup (1966) with one as reviled as Zabriskie Point (1970). While what merit the film has is found chiefly, if not solely, in Antonioni's characteristically striking visuals - particularly its concluding explosion sequence set to Pink Floyd's "Come in Number 51, Your Time is Up" (previously) - the movie has been YouTubed in its entirety here. (related)

The tiny phantasmagorias of Bernard Gigounon

carsonb — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:29:25 -0800

'It has been said that cinema is in essence a special effect. The video work of Bernard Gigounon reduces that notion to its minimal essence: cinema as an illusion, created by the manipulation of images in time. He does not create this effect with advanced, multi-dimensional digital technologies, but rather through simple, transparent magic...' via It's Nice That

Left Field Cinema, the best-curated film podcast out there

colinmarshall — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:41:48 -0800

I've listened to dozens of film podcasts, but Left Field Cinema is the first that devotes its episodes only — or at least primarily — to movies worth discussing. I'm talking about Malick's Badlands. I'm talking about Tarkovsky's Solaris. I'm talking Kieslowski's Dekalog which gets a two-parter. I'm talking about Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies. I'm talking Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. At long last, I say.

The Anthrax of film, not the disease but the band

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:27:38 -0800

Multipart interview with film maker Kevin Smith on his career so far, why he's directing a film he didn't write, the internet and dying an early death. Part 1 - Selling Out And Salty Language, Part 2 - Writing & Film Making, Part 3 - Change, Death, Legacy, Part 4 - The Dark Side Of The Internet, Part 5 - The Curse Of Chasing Amy, Part 6 - Bright Side Of The Internet, Part 7- Talking To People He Wrote, Part 8 - Gretzky, Gratitude & God, Part 9 - Risking His Life & Starting A New One (and more to come apparently...)

On the Creepy/Alluring Art of the Follow Shot

maudlin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:13:13 -0800

"Because the camera is so close to the character(s) being followed, we feel that we're physically attached to those characters, as if by an invisible guide wire, being towed through their world, sometimes keeping pace, other times losing them as they weave through hallways, down staircases or through smoke or fog." A video montage and essay by Matt Zoller Seitz. All shots are identified at the end; you may know more of them than you think. (via)

"Get up, you scum suckin' pig!"

ageispolis — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:32:47 -0800

Cult western classic One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is the only film ever directed by Marlon Brando, who happened to replace the original director, none other than Stanley Kubrick.

Well if you liked Gigli...

hypersloth — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:28:04 -0800

Clerkdogs works surprisingly well versus other web-based recommendations, partly because paid enthusiasts are involved, and partly for its intuitive interface. An interview with CEO Stuart Skorman, previously of "dotshot" fame for founding and selling Reel.com.

Witty Ad Infinitum

y2karl — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:25:40 -0800

...[Change of scene. We are looking out of a car window; it is raining, or has recently rained. Shops go by.] I treated myself to a taxi. I rode home through the city streets! There wasn't a street--there wasn't a building--that wasn't connected to some memory in my mind. There I was buying a suit with my father. There I was having an ice-cream soda after school. When I finally came in, Debby was home from work. And I told her everything about my dinner with André

And here is Sergio Leone and the Inside Fly Rule's meditation on the only possible other candidate for Best.Movie.Ever. See Also See Also

Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:43:10 -0800

Trailer for Brüno, the upcoming film by Sacha Baron Cohen, formerly known for his characters Ali G and Borat.

A Face Like Prison Bread

cinemafiend — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:05:14 -0800

Warren Mercer Oates was one the greatest character actors to ever appear in American film. A fascinating biography of the actor's life and career was published this week, and is titled Warren Oates: A Wild Life He worked with many of the most daring filmmakers of the sixties and seventies, including: Sam Peckinpah, Monte Hellman, Terrence Malick, John Milius, Thomas McGuane , and Peter Fonda. He couldn't work with them all: Werner Herzog wanted Oates for FITZCARRALDO and Sergio Leone wanted to sign him to a three picture deal. If you have never seen a picture in which Warren Oates appeared in a leading role - I recommend heading on over to Netflix and throwing TWO-LANE BLACKTOP or THE HIRED HAND to the top of your queue. Those more familiar with the actor might want to seek out his less visible and hard to find films including COCKFIGHTER (the trailer makes it look like exploitation but its really an art film) and 92 IN THE SHADE.