Rats. Russell Crowe is Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s Superman movie.

Posted on June 19, 2011
Filed Under animation, contemporary, film news

Warner Bros. announced last week that Russell Crowe has joined the cast of Man of Steel, the upcoming Superman film to be directed by Zack Snyder. This is depressing news.

I’m disheartened not by Crowe, an actor I admire, but by the role he’s playing: Jor-El, the Kryptonian scientist who… (gritted teeth)… saves his infant son from Krypton’s imminent destruction by sending him in a spaceship to Earth, where the boy is adopted by simple country folk Jonathan and Martha Kent and soon discovers… oh bloody hell. Read more

Thanhouser films online, People On Sunday coming to DVD

Posted on March 29, 2011
Filed Under film news, films, miscellany, silent films

Dr. Jekll and Mr. Hyde (1912) from Ned Thanhouser on Vimeo.

Thanhouser Film Preservation Company has put their films online!

This is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912), from the Thanhouser Company, a pioneering American film studio in New Rochelle, New York that was active from 1910 to 1918. Read more

Japanese cinema blogathon, Baby Peggy, Joan Dark at SxSW, Vertov retro at MoMA

Posted on March 19, 2011
Filed Under film news

Japan Cinema and Cinema Fanatic have launched the Japanese Cinema Blogathon to raise money for relief efforts in Japan following the horrific earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accidents. Participants are blogging about Japanese cinema all next week. Please click to logo to donate to this most pressing of causes. With superb timing, the NYT‘s always-excellent Dave Kehr weighs in on Silent Naruse, a five-film collection from Eclipse that includes some of Naruse’s earliest surviving work. Read more

The Birth of A Nation again, The Metropolis Times, The Man Who Walked Around The World

Posted on January 15, 2011
Filed Under contemporary, film news, films, silent films

The most controversial film in history is now online at Hulu.

February 8 marks the 96th anniversary of the release of The Birth of A Nation. Griffith’s foul, brilliant masterpiece continues to stir controversy and debate. Last month a proposed showing of the film at the American Civil War Center in Richmond, Virginia generated a censorious resolution from the city council. (The proposed showing was canceled for a variety of other reasons.) Read more

Silents added to National Film Registry, Ebert offers Oscar nod, more

Posted on December 29, 2010
Filed Under contemporary, film news, miscellany

Yesterday James H. Billington, Librarian of the United States Congress, announced the 25 films that will be added to the National Film Registry this year. Included are some terrific titles, among them The Front Page, The Exorcist, All the President’s Men, The Pink Panther and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. The full list is here. Four of the inductees are early silent films, including A Trip Down Market Street; Thomas Gladysz has an excellent description of the early titles here. The puzzler for me on this year’s list is The Empire Strikes Back Read more

keep looking »

Recently


Categories


Archives


Blogroll