Endless Summer: Hollywood Icons at the Beach (1965)

in Film, Life, Television | September 6th, 2011

It’s a quick glimpse into a bygone era, a more inno­cent era, before TMZ, Perez Hilton and The Super­fi­cial made being a celebri­ty a more dif­fi­cult propo­si­tion. The date is August 1965. The place is Mal­ibu. And the peo­ple? Some of the biggest stars in Hol­ly­wood — Paul New­man, Natal­ie Wood, Robert Red­ford, Jane Fon­da, Julie Andrews, Christo­pher Plum­mer, and Rock Hud­son — enjoy­ing some sim­ple, inti­mate moments at the beach. The video above comes from a set of films orig­i­nal­ly belong­ing to Rod­dy McDowall, all now appear­ing on YouTube for the first time. Oth­er clips in the col­lec­tion fea­ture:

Natal­ie Wood, Jane Fon­da, and Hope Lange Ear­li­er That Sum­mer

Labor Day 1965 at Rock Hud­son’s House

Robert Red­ford at the West­wood Fox 1965

Christo­pher Plum­mer, Sal Mineo, Natal­ie Wood, and Juli­et Mills at Mal­ibu

Natal­ie Wood, Lau­ren Bacall, Suzanne Pleshette and oth­ers togeth­er in Mal­ibu

Jane Fon­da and Julie Andrews Togeth­er

 

via World­of­Won­der

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37 Hitchcock Cameo Appearances Over 50 Years: All in One Video

in Film | September 2nd, 2011

Ear­ly in his career, Alfred Hitch­cock began mak­ing small appear­ances in his own films. The cameos some­times last­ed just a few brief sec­onds, and some­times a lit­tle while longer. Either way, they became a sig­na­ture of Hitch­cock­’s film­mak­ing, and fans made a sport of see­ing whether they could spot the elu­sive direc­tor. From 1927 to 1976, Hitch­cock made 37 appear­ances in total, and they’re all nice­ly cat­a­logued by Hitchcock.TV and the clip above.

If you’re hun­gry for a good film over the long Labor Day week­end, then don’t miss our col­lec­tion 22 Free Hitch­cock Films Online, which includes The 39 Steps, The Lodger, The Man Who Knew Too Much and oth­er ear­ly clas­sics. Or sim­ply dive into our meta col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More. You’re bound to find some­thing you like…

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Alfred Hitch­cock Recalls Work­ing with Sal­vador Dali on Spell­bound

Hitch­cock on Hap­pi­ness

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The Blade Runner Promotional Film

in Film, Sci Fi | September 1st, 2011

A quick addi­tion to yes­ter­day’s look back at Siskel & Ebert’s 1982 review of Blade Run­ner.

As we were say­ing, the film got off to a very shaky start. The pro­duc­tion was a mess. Crit­ics panned the film. Film­go­ers went to see ET. And all of the rest.

It was time to pull out the stops. So, M. K. Pro­duc­tions was enlist­ed to shoot a 16 mm pro­mo­tion­al fea­turette that cir­cu­lat­ed through Amer­i­ca’s hor­ror, fan­ta­sy and sci-fi con­ven­tions. Fea­tur­ing inter­views with Rid­ley Scott, Syd Mead (visu­al futur­ist), and Dou­glas Trum­bull (spe­cial effects), the short pro­mo­tion­al film let view­ers peer inside the mak­ing of the mag­i­cal Blade Run­ner uni­verse. And now you can do the same.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Mak­ing of the Shin­ing

Blade Run­ner Gets Re-Cre­at­ed, Shot for Shot, Using Only Microsoft Paint

Blade Run­ner is a Waste of Time: Siskel & Ebert in 1982

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Blade Runner is a “Waste of Time”: Siskel & Ebert in 1982

in Film, Sci Fi | August 31st, 2011

It’s per­haps hard to imag­ine now, but Rid­ley Scot­t’s clas­sic sci-fi film, Blade Run­ner, saw some hard days when it was first released in 1982. Pre­view screen­ings went bad­ly. Crowds flocked instead to see Steven Spielberg’s block­buster, ET. The film lost mon­ey. And crit­ics gave the film mixed reviews.

Case in point, Siskel & Ebert’s review on nation­al tele­vi­sion. Roger finds some redeem­ing qual­i­ties — the spe­cial effects. Siskel calls it a “waste of time.” One thumb up grudg­ing­ly; anoth­er firm­ly down. A decid­ed­ly mixed review.

Siskel died, of course, in 1999. If you’re won­der­ing if Ebert ever changed his posi­tion, you can find this reap­praisal writ­ten in 2007, on the 25th anniver­sary of the film’s release.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Blade Run­ner Pro­mo­tion­al Film

What is a Blade Run­ner? How Rid­ley Scott’s Movie Has Ori­gins in William S. Bur­roughs’ Novel­la, Blade Run­ner: A Movie

The Sounds of Blade Run­ner: How Music & Sound Effects Became Part of the DNA of Rid­ley Scott’s Futur­is­tic World

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Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: Uncut & Restored

in Film | August 31st, 2011

2010 saw the release of a restored ver­sion of Metrop­o­lis, the clas­sic Ger­man expres­sion­ist, sci-fi film direct­ed by Fritz Lang. The restora­tion start­ed two years ear­li­er, in 2008, when a long sought-after copy of the 1927 film was found in the archives of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, and it con­tained 30 min­utes of pre­vi­ous­ly unseen footage. (Get the back­sto­ry here.) Ger­man experts got to work and ful­ly restored the extend­ed but degrad­ed copy. Then came the big unveil­ing. In Feb­ru­ary 2010, the new Metrop­o­lis was screened at The Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, and ARTE pre­sent­ed a live broad­cast. The trail­er for the film appears above; and the film, as pre­sent­ed by ARTE, now lives on YouTube.

Old­er ver­sions of Metrop­o­lis — the ones you know so well — are list­ed in our col­lec­tion of 420 Free Movies Online. Scroll to the bot­tom of the page and look under “Silent Films.”

P.S. A rock opera ver­sion of Metrop­o­lis will be com­ing to a the­ater near you. More on that here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Mar­lene Dietrich’s Tem­pera­men­tal Screen Test for The Blue Angel (1929)

Where Hor­ror Film Began: The Cab­i­net of Dr. Cali­gari

The Seashell and the Cler­gy­man: The World’s First Sur­re­al­ist Film

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Martin Scorsese Documentary on George Harrison Coming This Fall

in Film, Music | August 26th, 2011

Mar­tin Scors­ese (Rag­ing Bull, Taxi Dri­ver, Good­fel­las) has always had a pen­chant for the rock­u­men­tary. In 1978, he direct­ed The Last Waltz fea­tur­ing the farewell con­cert of The Band — a film lat­er called “the great­est rock con­cert movie ever made.” Then, after a hia­tus, Scors­ese returned to music again, shoot­ing No Direc­tion Home: Bob Dylan (2005) and Shine a Light, a trib­ute to the Rolling Stones, in 2008.

If you’re tack­ling Dylan and the Stones, then why not go for the tri­fec­ta and bring your cin­e­mat­ic tal­ents to bear on The Bea­t­les? And so it shall be. On Octo­ber 5th and 6th, HBO will air George Har­ri­son: Liv­ing in the Mate­r­i­al World, a two-part doc­u­men­tary ded­i­cat­ed to the Bea­t­le who long played in the shad­ow of John and Paul. Scors­ese’s lat­est film will fea­ture unseen archival mate­ri­als and inter­views with Paul, Ringo, Eric Clap­ton, Tom Pet­ty, Ter­ry Gilliam, Phil Spec­tor and oth­ers. It will also be co-released with a 400-page hard­cov­er book writ­ten by Olivia Har­ri­son, which uses pho­tographs, let­ters, diaries, and mem­o­ra­bil­ia to trace the arc of George’s life. Can hard­ly wait. H/T Wired

Note: You can find The Last Waltz and Taxi Dri­ver in our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Bea­t­les: Why Music Mat­ters in Two Ani­mat­ed Min­utes

Peter Sell­ers Per­forms The Bea­t­les in Shake­speare­an Mode

The Bea­t­les as Teens (1957)

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Jackson Pollock 51: Short Film Captures the Painter Creating Abstract Expressionist Art

in Art, Film | August 24th, 2011

In the sum­mer of 1950, Hans Namuth approached Jack­son Pol­lock and asked the abstract expres­sion­ist painter if he could pho­to­graph him in his stu­dio, work­ing with his “drip” tech­nique of paint­ing. When Namuth arrived, he found:

A drip­ping wet can­vas cov­ered the entire floor. Blind­ing shafts of sun­light hit the wet can­vas, mak­ing its sur­face hard to see. There was com­plete silence.… Pol­lock looked at the paint­ing. Then unex­pect­ed­ly, he picked up can and paint­brush and start­ed to move around the can­vas. It was as if he sud­den­ly real­ized the paint­ing was not fin­ished. His move­ments, slow at first, grad­u­al­ly became faster and more dance­like as he flung black, white and rust-col­ored paint onto the can­vas.

The images from this shoot “helped trans­form Pol­lock from a tal­ent­ed, cranky lon­er into the first media-dri­ven super­star of Amer­i­can con­tem­po­rary art, the jeans-clad, chain-smok­ing poster boy of abstract expres­sion­ism,” one crit­ic lat­er wrote in The Wash­ing­ton Post.

But Namuth was­n’t sat­is­fied that he had real­ly cap­tured the essence of Pol­lock­’s work. He want­ed to cap­ture Pol­lock in motion and col­or, to focus on the painter and paint­ing alike.

Above, you can watch the result of Namuth’s sec­ond effort. The ten-minute film, sim­ply called Jack­son Pol­lock 51 (the 51 being short for 1951), lets you see Pol­lock paint­ing from a unique angle — through glass. The film achieved Namuth’s aes­thet­ic goals, but it came at a price. Appar­ent­ly the film­ing taxed Pol­lock emo­tion­al­ly, and by the evening, the painter decid­ed to pour him­self some bour­bon, his first drink in two years. A blowout argu­ment fol­lowed; Pol­lock nev­er stopped drink­ing again; and it was down­hill from there…

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

MoMA Puts Pol­lock, Rothko & de Koon­ing on Your iPad

Steven Spiel­berg Admits Swal­low­ing a Tran­sis­tor to Andy Warhol

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Marlene Dietrich’s Temperamental Screen Test for The Blue Angel (1929)

in Film | August 19th, 2011

In 1929, Josef von Stern­berg began assem­bling the cast for the first major Ger­man sound film — Der blaue Engel, oth­er­wise known as The Blue Angel. A clas­sic of Weimar cin­e­ma, the 1930 film fea­tured Mar­lene Diet­rich play­ing Lola-Lola, a seduc­tive singer in the local cabaret. Lola-Lola was, it has been said, a “lib­er­at­ed woman of the world who chose her men, earned her own liv­ing and viewed sex as a chal­lenge.” The per­sona cap­ti­vat­ed audi­ences, and it made Diet­rich an inter­na­tion­al star.

Above, you can watch Diet­rich’s screen test for the film. Inhab­it­ing the role, she gives the poor piano play­er an ear­ful (essen­tial­ly say­ing, “How the hell can I sing through this garbage with you play­ing like that?”). Then she works her way through “Why Cry at Part­ing?” and climbs on that piano, cig­a­rette no longer in hand, and puts on a show…

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

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