September has brought us a TON of television and some pretty great movies! Binge watch Gilligan’s Island, or Wallander! On the movie front, we got an eerie Nicole Kidman movie, Birth, and John Wick 2. (Yes, we have the original too.) Intrigued? Come check one out! September New Acquisitions 19-2. Season 1, Discs 1 – […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: mediaservices
Frustrated with Netflix? Check Cinesift!
Cinesift, a movie rating aggregator and competitor to Rotten Tomatoes, has an awesome service that will tell you which quality films are available on Amazon Prime and Netflix. If you’re bored and the lesser dregs of Netflix will not satisfy your viewing needs, try their new search features to find a film worth watching that’s […]
Continue readingHappy Birthday Peter Lorre
To celebrate Peter Lorre’s birthday (June 26, 1904), here are some of BFI’s 10 essential Peter Lorre performances from our collection. (THOSE EYES!!) M (HU DVD 56): Drama based on the actual case of the Dusseldorf murderer of children who is hunted by police, but is caught and tried by the city’s criminals. The Man Who […]
Continue readingThe Phantom Image
In the TLS, Martin Scorsese responds to a review of his film Silence. His article, “Standing up for cinema,” lives up to its title: it stands up for a much maligned creative process, and an undervalued creative product. Scorsese makes many good points, in so many beautiful lines. Definitely worth a read. If you feel inspired, […]
Continue readingBorder Crossing Humor
Interesting piece on Woody Allen’s humor by Peter Berger, including this intriguing idea: “I think that one of the traits of sophistication is the capacity to cross borders between different cultural relevancies. Humor is often, intentionally or not, the result if not the very technique of such border-crossing.” Zelig (HU DVD 2082) is my recommended […]
Continue readingFor the silent film treasure hunter…
Imogen Sara Smith highlights Mostly Lost on Criterion. Definitely worth a read. On eventbrite, the description of the Mostly Lost workshop is: The Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus presents “Mostly Lost 6: A Film Identification Workshop” on June 15-17, 2017 in Culpeper, Virginia. “Mostly Lost” will feature the screenings of unidentified, […]
Continue readingTake a study break with a short streaming film!
Sure you could surrender your study breaks to Hulu, but AU also has streaming access to many short films that are arresting, important, and worth seeing. Here are three you might enjoy: A Trip to the Moon (13 minutes): This drama, by director Georges Melies, features Victor Andre, Bleuette Bernon, and Brunnet in a beautifully restored black […]
Continue readingCheck out this silent version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on Viki: https://www.viki.com/videos/1037941v-20000-leagues-under-the-sea This was the first motion picture filmed underwater! As Wikipedia states: Actual underwater cameras were not used, but a system of watertight tubes and mirrors allowed the camera to shoot reflected images of underwater scenes staged in shallow sunlit waters. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20,000_Leagues_Under_the_Sea_(1916_film)) Here […]
Continue reading10 years of LAIKA
Over the weekend, I was completely blown away by LAIKA’s Kubo and the Two Strings (HU DVD 13637). As an animation studio, LAIKA creates some of the grandest and unique worlds in film. Kubo is an incredible accomplishment, and an example of the offbeat humor, powerful storytelling, and, of course, artistic prowess LAIKA has come to […]
Continue readingBefore there was Sailor Moon…there was The Dull Sword
As highlighted on Hyperallergic, the National Film Center of Japan’s National Museum of Modern Art has uploaded a ton of early Japanese animation to mark the centennial of Japan’s oldest known animated film. You can see all the films here, and the very oldest–a 1917 work discovered in an antique store in 2008!–is The Dull Sword […]
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