Fellini + Abrams = Super 8½

in Film | August 8th, 2011

J.J. Abrams Super 8 meets Fed­eri­co Fellini’s mas­ter­piece 8 ½. The new gets lay­ered over the old, and it all adds up to Super 8 ½. Fun­ny enough, it kind of works.

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Watch John Huston’s Beat the Devil

in Film | August 5th, 2011

In hon­or of what would have been John Hus­ton’s 105th birth­day, we’re fea­tur­ing Beat the Dev­il, the 1953 clas­sic direct­ed by Hus­ton and co-writ­ten by Tru­man Capote. Star­ring Humphrey Bog­a­rt, Jen­nifer Jones, Gina Lol­lo­b­rigi­da and Peter Lorre (quite a cast!), the film is a dra­mat­ic com­e­dy that spoofs the noir genre and par­tic­u­lar­ly Hus­ton’s own leg­endary film, The Mal­tese Fal­con. You can find Beat the Dev­il per­ma­nent­ly list­ed in our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online, as well as in our Free Film Noir col­lec­tion.

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David Lynch’s Video Response to Washington Debt Deal

in Current Affairs, Film, Politics | August 3rd, 2011

No one is hap­py with Wash­ing­ton D.C. this week, and that includes film­mak­er David Lynch, who gives you his com­men­tary in sounds and images, not words. The sym­bol­ism? Amer­i­ca is in a dark posi­tion and mov­ing back­wards? The deficit deal is flat out garbage?

H/T @opedr


Relat­ed Con­tent:

David Lynch and Inter­pol Team Up on Short Film

David Lynch’s Organ­ic Cof­fee (Bar­bie Head Not Includ­ed)

David Lynch on his Favorite Movies and Film­mak­ers

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The Tarantino Mixtape (NSFW)

in Art, Film, Music | July 29th, 2011

Take Quentin Taran­ti­no’s movies, then let Eclec­tic Method decon­struct and recon­struct the scenes, leav­ing you with The Taran­ti­no Mix­tape, which is a lit­tle Not Safe for Work.

Based in Lon­don, the mem­bers of Eclec­tic Method have been exper­i­ment­ing with audio-visu­al mix­ing of sounds and images for a good decade. 60+ of their videos appear online, includ­ing their lat­est release — a Star Wars remix called Dark Wars. H/T Devour

Relat­ed Con­tent:

What if Taran­ti­no Direct­ed the Super Bowl Broad­cast?

“Tarantino’s Mind,” Award Win­ning Short Film

Tarantino’s Favorite Films Since ’92

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Jason Alexander Promotes Netflix Relief Fund

in Comedy, Film | July 28th, 2011

Ear­li­er this month, Net­flix upped its month­ly sub­scrip­tion by a good 60%, cre­at­ing what amount­ed to a bour­geois tragedy for many. If you sub­scribe to Net­flix, then fear not. Help may be on its way. Fun­ny­orDie feels your pain, and, with the help of Jason Alexan­der (you know him from Sein­feld), they’re pro­mot­ing the Net­flix Relief Fund. Wink.

If you plan on stick­ing with Net­flix, you can find here a great list of qual­i­ty films, all stream­able via the web. (If need­ed, snag a free one month sub­scrip­tion to Net­flix here.) Or if you’re look­ing for oth­er options, don’t miss our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online, where you’re pret­ty much guar­an­teed to find some­thing you like…

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Life in Moments/Moments in Life

in Art, Film, Life | July 28th, 2011

Back in 2009, the folks at Radi­o­Lab tack­led anoth­er big ques­tion: “What hap­pens at the moment when we slip from life…to the oth­er side? Is it a moment? If it is, when exact­ly does it hap­pen? And what hap­pens after­ward?”

The show (lis­ten here) inspired film­mak­er Will Hoff­man to shoot a video the med­i­tates on the lit­tle moments that give life (and death) their mean­ing. Some moments stand in iso­la­tion. Oth­ers moments are con­nect­ed, cre­at­ing a link between birth and death, cause and effect, begin­nings and ends. In this audio clip, Hoff­man talks with Radi­o­Lab co-host Robert Krul­wich about the vision inform­ing the video sim­ply called Moments. And, if it delights, don’t miss two oth­er Hoffman/RadioLab pro­duc­tions, one sim­ply called Words, the oth­er Sym­me­try.

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Movie Tearjerkers: What’s the Saddest Scene in Cinema?

in Film, Psychology | July 28th, 2011

Accord­ing this fas­ci­nat­ing piece in The Smith­son­ian, Fran­co Zef­firelli’s 1979 weep­fest The Champ is the most con­sis­tent­ly effec­tive tear­jerk­er in the his­to­ry of film. It’s also the tear­jerk­er most often used in sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies of grief and sad­ness:

The Champ has been used in exper­i­ments to see if depressed peo­ple are more like­ly to cry than non-depressed peo­ple (they aren’t). It has helped deter­mine whether peo­ple are more like­ly to spend mon­ey when they are sad (they are) and whether old­er peo­ple are more sen­si­tive to grief than younger peo­ple (old­er peo­ple did report more sad­ness when they watched the scene). Dutch sci­en­tists used the scene when they stud­ied the effect of sad­ness on peo­ple with binge eat­ing dis­or­ders (sad­ness didn’t increase eat­ing).

We would have gone with either the last scene of West Side Sto­ry or that dev­as­tat­ing 1989 Negro Col­lege Fund com­mer­cial with the pen­nies. Feel free to post your own can­di­dates in the com­ments.

via Neatora­ma

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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

in Film | July 26th, 2011

A few weeks ago, we post­ed New York Times crit­ic A.O.Scott’s thought­ful three-minute look back at the sur­re­al­ist clas­sic Un Chien Andalou. The 1929 Buñuel/Dalí pro­duc­tion may well be the world’s most famous bit of ear­ly sur­re­al­ist cin­e­ma, but it was not the first. That hon­or goes to anoth­er very strange (and indu­bitably sur­re­al) short film screened in Paris in 1928, prompt­ing the now infa­mous con­dem­na­tion from the British Board of Film Cen­sors. It insist­ed that the 31-minute film was “appar­ent­ly mean­ing­less.” They then added, “If there is a mean­ing, it is doubt­less objec­tion­able.”

The Seashell and the Cler­gy­man, based on Antonin Artaud’s screen­play about a priest who lusts after a Gen­er­al’s wife, was direct­ed by the cin­e­ma the­o­rist, jour­nal­ist, and crit­ic Ger­maine Dulac (1882–1942). Dulac was also a ground­break­ing fem­i­nist film­mak­er — she is best known today for The Smil­ing Mrs. Beudet (1923), a sem­i­nal silent film about a woman trapped in a love­less mar­riage.

You can find both in our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Great Train Rob­bery: Where West­erns Began

A Trip to the Moon: Where Sci Fi Movies Began

Sal­vador Dali (and Oth­er VIPs) on “What’s My Line?”

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

 

 

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