BLACHEFAN
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Posts posted by BLACHEFAN
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Blacksmith Scene (1893)
Not blacksmiths but employees of the Edison Manufacturing Company, Charles Kayser, John Ott and another unidentified man are likely the first screen actors in history, and "Blacksmith Scene" is thought to be the first film of more than a few feet to be publicly exhibited. The 30-second film was photographed in late April 1893 by Edison's key employee, W.K.L. Dickson, at the new Edison studio in New Jersey. On May 9, audiences lined up single file at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to peer through a viewing machine called a kinetoscope where glowed images of a blacksmith and two helpers forging a piece of iron, but only after they'd first passed around a bottle of beer. A Brooklyn newspaper reported the next day, "It shows living subjects portrayed in a manner to excite wonderment."
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Newark Athlete (1891)
Produced May-June 1891, this experimental film was one of the first made in America at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, N.J. The filmmakers were W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise, both of whom were employed as inventors and engineers in the industrial research facility owned by Thomas Edison. Heise and especially Dickson made important technical contributions during 1891-1893, leading to the invention of the world's first successful motion picture camera—the Edison Kinetograph—and to the playback device required for viewing early peepshow films—the Edison Kinetoscope.
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Another film that I was pushing for was "Near Dark." It is an impressive vampire-western genre hybrid by one of my favorite filmmaker, Kathryn Bigelow. Another filmmakers work that should have been on the list are the works of Paul Verhoeven. Films like: "Robocop," "Total Recall," "Starship Troopers," and "Hollow Man."
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Other films that I was pushing to be included into the National Film Registry were: "The Blot," "Outrage," "Bimbo's Initiation," "The Talking Magpies," "Knock-Knock," "Peyton Place," "UHF," "The Beast of Yucca Flats," "Elmer Gantry," "Falling Leaves," "The Broadway Melody," "The Story of Temple Drake," "The Black Cat," "Charly," "Bluebeard," "Club Havana," "Girls in Chains," "The Power of Thought," "The Snake Pit," "The Howling," "The Children's Hour," "Reds," "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." These films to me are interesting in that they are special in their own way. No matter how good or bad they were upon their initial release.
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I was pushing for the films of Ralph Bakshi like "Fritz the Cat," "Heavy Traffic," "Coonskin," "Wizards," and "Lord of the Rings" to be inducted into the National Film Registry. I always considered Bakshi as the antithesis of Walt Disney. I regarded him as the Jean-Luc Godard of animation. His conventions and methods are unorthodox, independent, and outside the studio system that was against the mainstream Hollywood studio films in animation.
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The Prince of Tides (1991)
Directed by Barbra Streisand
Country: United States
Duration: 132 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1022
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Audio commentary featuring Streisand, recorded in 1991 and updated in 2019
Making-of featurette from 1991
Excerpt from a 2018 interview with Streisand, conducted by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on El Rey Network’s The Director’s Chair
Audition and rehearsal footage
Deleted scenes and alternate takes
Costume and makeup tests
Alternate end credits with vocal performance by Streisand
Behind-the-scenes footage
Gag reel
Production-stills gallery and other archival materials
Interview with author Pat Conroy from a 1992 episode of Cinema Showcase with Jim Whaley
Interview with Streisand from a 1992 episode of the British television show Aspel & Company with Michael Aspel
Trailers
PLUS: An essay by film historian Bruce Eder
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Show Boat (1936)
Directed by James Whale
Country: United States
Duration: 113 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1021
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Audio commentary from 1989 featuring American-musical historian Miles Kreuger
New interview with James Whale biographer James Curtis
Recognizing Race in “Show Boat,” a new interview program featuring professor and author Shana L. Redmond
Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979), an Academy Award–winning short documentary by Saul J. Turell, newly restored
Two performances from the sound prologue of the 1929 film version of Show Boat, plus twenty minutes of silent excerpts from the film, with audio commentary by Kreuger
Two radio adaptations of Show Boat, featuring stage and screen cast members Allan Jones, Helen Morgan, and Charles Winninger; actor Orson Welles; and novelist Edna Ferber
PLUS: An essay by critic Gary Giddins
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Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Directed by John M. Stahl
Country: United States
Duration: 110 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1020
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by novelist Megan Abbott
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Bamboozled (2000)
Directed by Spike Lee
Country: United States
Duration: 136 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1019
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Lee
New conversation between Lee and film programmer and critic Ashley Clark
New interviews with choreographer and actor Savion Glover, actor Tommy Davidson, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter
On Blackface and the Minstrel Show, a new interview program featuring film and media scholar Racquel Gates
The Making of “Bamboozled” (2001), a documentary featuring members of the cast and crew
Deleted scenes, music videos for the Mau Maus’ “Blak Iz Blak” and Gerald Levert’s “Dream with No Love,” and alternate parody commercials created for the film
Poster gallery and trailer
PLUS: An essay by Clark
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Paris Is Burning (1990)
Directed by Jennie Livingston
Country: United States
Duration: 76 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1018
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New conversation between Livingston, ball community members Sol Pendavis and Freddie Pendavis, and filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris
Over an hour of never-before-seen outtakes
Audio commentary from 2005, featuring Livingston, ball community members Freddie Pendavis and Willi Ninja, and film editor Jonathan Oppenheim
Episode of The Joan Rivers Show from 1991, featuring Livingston and ball community members Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Freddie Pendavis, and Willi Ninja
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Michelle Parkerson and a 1991 review by poet and activist Essex Hemphill
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The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)
Directed by Karel Zeman
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 83 minutes
Language: Czech
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussing director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery
Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe for Luck (1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Lavra (1950)
Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others
Short documentaries by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films
U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960
Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention for Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version
Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski
Trailers
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with limited-edition deluxe Blu-ray packaging featuring pop-up art
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Invention for Destruction (1958)
Directed by Karel Zeman
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 81 minutes
Language: Czech
Spine #1016
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussing director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery
Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe for Luck (1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Lavra (1950)
Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others
Short documentaries by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films
U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960
Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention for Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version
Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski
Trailers
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with limited-edition deluxe Blu-ray packaging featuring pop-up art
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Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)
Directed by Karel Zeman
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 84 minutes
Language: Czech
Spine #1015
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussing director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery
Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe for Luck (1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Lavra (1950)
Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others
Short documentaries by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films
U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960
Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention for Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version
Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski
Trailers
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with limited-edition deluxe Blu-ray packaging featuring pop-up art
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Roma (2018)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Country: Mexico, United States
Duration: 135 minutes
Language: Mixtec, Spanish
Spine #1014
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Road to “Roma,” a new documentary about the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Cuarón
Snapshots from the Set, a new documentary featuring actors Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, producers Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis, production designer Eugenio Caballero, casting director Luis Rosales, executive producer David Linde, and others
New documentaries about the film’s sound and postproduction processes, featuring Cuarón; Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay, and Craig Henighan from the postproduction sound team; editor Adam Gough; postproduction supervisor Carlos Morales; and finishing artist Steven J. Scott
New documentary about the film’s ambitious theatrical campaign and social impact in Mexico, featuring Celis and Rodríguez
Trailers
PLUS: Essays by novelist Valeria Luiselli and historian Enrique Krauze, along with (Blu-ray only) writing by author Aurelio Asiain and production-design images with notes by Caballero
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Teorema (1969)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 minutes
Language: Italian
Spine #1013
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack, featuring the voice of actor Terence Stamp and others
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring Robert S. C. Gordon, author of Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity
Introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1969
Interview from 2007 with Stamp
New interview with John David Rhodes, author of Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome
More!
PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt
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All About My Mother (1999)
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Duration: 101 minutes
Language: Spanish
Spine #1012
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Fifty-two-minute documentary from 2012 on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Pedro Almodóvar; Agustín Almodóvar; actors Penélope Cruz, Marisa Paredes, Cecilia Roth, and Antonia San Juan; production manager Esther García; and author Didier Eribon
Television program from 1999 featuring Pedro Almodóvar and his mother, Francisca Caballero, along with Cruz, San Juan, Paredes, and Roth
Forty-eight-minute post-screening Q&A in Madrid from 2019, featuring Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, and Paredes
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Emma Wilson, along with (Blu-ray only) an interview with Pedro Almodóvar and a tribute he wrote to his mother, both from 1999
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Fail Safe (1964)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Country: United States
Duration: 112 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1011
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Audio commentary from 2000 featuring director Sidney Lumet
New interview with film critic J. Hoberman on 1960s nuclear paranoia and Cold War films
“Fail Safe” Revisited, a short documentary from 2000 including interviews with Lumet, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actor Dan O’Herlihy
PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri
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Le petit soldat (1963)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Country: France
Duration: 88 minutes
Language: French
Spine #1010
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Interview with director Jean-Luc Godard from 1965
Interview with actor Michel Subor from 1963
Audio interview with Godard from 1961
PLUS: An essay by critic Nicholas Elliott
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Holiday (1938)
Directed by George Cukor
Country: United States
Duration: 95 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1009
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Holiday (1930), a previous adaptation of Philip Barry’s play, directed by Edward H. Griffith
New conversation between filmmaker and distributor Michael Schlesinger and film critic Michael Sragow
Audio excerpts from an American Film Institute oral history with director George Cukor, recorded in 1970 and ’71
Costume gallery
PLUS: An essay by critic Dana Stevens
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Old Joy (2006)
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Country: United States
Duration: 73 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1008
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New interviews with Reichardt, Sillen, and author Jonathan Raymond
New conversation between actors Daniel London and Will Oldham
PLUS: An essay by film critic Ed Halter and (on the Blu-ray) the short story by Raymond on which the film is based
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Until the End of the World (1991)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Country: Germany, France, Australia
Duration: 287 minutes
Language: English, French, German
Spine #1007
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New introduction by Wenders
New interview with Wenders about the film’s soundtrack
New conversation between Wenders and musician David Byrne
Japanese behind-the-scenes program detailing the creation of the film’s high-definition sequences
Interview with Wenders from 2001
Up-Down Under Roma, a 1993 interview with Wenders on his experiences in Australia
The Song, a 1991 short film by Uli M Schueppel detailing the recording of “(I’ll Love You) Till the End of the World” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Deleted scenes
Trailer
PLUS: Essays by critics Bilge Ebiri and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on the film and its soundtrack
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The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
Directed by Stephen Roberts
Country: United States
Duration: 71 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1006
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New program featuring a conversation between cinematographer John Bailey and Matt Severson, director of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, about the film’s visual style, as well as archival materials relating to its production
New program featuring critic Imogen Sara Smith on the complexity of the film and its central performance by Miriam Hopkins
New interview with critic Mick LaSalle about the film, censorship, and the Production Code
PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
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Cold War (2018)
Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
Country: Poland
Duration: 88 minutes
Language: Polish, French, Russian, Croatian, Italian, German
Spine #1005
DVD BONUS FEATURES
New conversation between Pawlikowski and filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Press conference from the 2018 Cannes Film Festival featuring Pawlikowski and Żal; actors Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, and Borys Szyc; and producer Ewa Puszczyńska
Two 2018 programs on the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Pawlikowski and others
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek
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Now, Voyager (1942)
Directed by Irving Rapper
Country: United States
Duration: 117 minutes
Language: English
Spine #1004
DVD BONUS FEATURES
Episode of The Dick Cavett Show from 1971 featuring actor Bette Davis
Interview with actor Paul Henreid from 1980
New selected-scene commentary on the film’s score by scholar Jeff Smith
New interview with film critic Farran Smith Nehme on the making of the film
New interview with costume historian Larry McQueen
Two radio adaptations from 1943 and 1946
Plus: An essay by scholar Patricia White and a 1937 reflection on acting by Davis
National Film Registry Year by Year
in General Discussions
Posted
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894-95)
In one of the first attempts to synchronize film picture and sound, W.K.L. Dickson of the Thomas Edison Company captured this 21-second motion picture by playing a violin into a recording horn attached to a wax cylinder machine while simultaneously filming the scene. The film was not intended for public consumption, but to test the technique employed. Its success prompted Edison to make other films for his "kinetophone," a single-user machine that employed rubber earphones to hear the film's sound. The system proved too expensive for the public, however, though it contributed to the development of future sound on film technology.