AMC’s breakthrough drama Mad Men ends tonight, eight years after its debut that put scripted basic cable television on the map. Despite the show’s cultural ubiquity(some would argue oversaturation) the final episode likely won’t come even close to breaking records for most-watched finales. This has much to do with the ways we now watch television […]
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Watch a huge chunk of the Criterion Collection for free via DC Public Library
As film buffs know, the Criterion Collection releases the definitive versions of hundreds of classic films, restored and remastered to their original glory. Criterion has recently made much of their catalog available digitally through a subscription database, and we noticed that DC Public Library now provides access to this collection. This is a huge boon […]
Continue readingHelp crowdfund Orson Welles’s final unfinished film
In 1970, legendary director Orson Welles began work on The Other Side of the Wind, a film about a filmmaker attempting to fund an experimental comeback film. Welles never intended The Other Side of the Wind to be autobiographical, but his life mirrored the protagonist’s in eerily similar ways. Over the next six years of […]
Continue reading“Lo and behold, there was actually an image in there.” Criterion’s techinical director talks restoration
Restoration is an important component of any film preservation and re-release process, especially the high-quality efforts from the Criterion Collection. Those of us without professional archival training never get a good idea of what happens during this mysterious process. Do they scan the original film? What sort of tools do they use to clean dirt […]
Continue readingState film tax credits on the chopping block
Tax incentives are often the saving grace of film productions. If a local film board gives you incentive to film your upcoming production on-site, you’d be silly not to at least consider its possible budget alleviation. That’s why House of Cards films many of its scenes in Baltimore. It brings commerce and attention to states […]
Continue readingTelevision’s reign of visual media continues, bleeds into film festivals
Even in a post-Breaking Bad and nearly-post-Mad Men landscape, television continues to assert its cultural dominance. More directors and actors turn to television for a chance to tell experimental or long-form stories, and the film world has unsurprisingly taken notice. In the latest sign of this explosive growth and relevance, the Toronto International Film Festival […]
Continue readingThe A.V. Club names their eclectic, contentious list of the best films of the ’10s
2015 marks the halfway point of the decade, and given our itchy need for instant gratification, why not do some retrospectives now instead of waiting until 2020? All week, the pop culture aficionados at The A.V. Club have been posting the results of a highly debated internal poll to determine the top 100 best movies […]
Continue readingFor real? Furious 7 carries the torch for practical effects in movies
The latest entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise is apparently on-track to crush April box office records. There’s a plethora of reasons why the series has been so successful – this entry in particular attracting attention after the death of actor Paul Walker – but its greatest asset might be its continued use […]
Continue readingAll the President’s Men wins Washingtonian’s bracket; SOC professor has some choice words
In February, we reported on the Washingtonian’s bracket to determine the most “DC” movie of all time. Much to our sadness, the Mr. T-starring DC Cab did not win, but top honors went to the classic Watergate drama All the President’s Men. AtPM beat out lobbyist ode Thank You for Smoking for the top prize, […]
Continue readingIn India, national cinema preservation is in the balance
We post about film preservation frequently on this blog, and for the most part, contemporary film preservation effort in our neck of the woods are excellent. Between the National Film Registry and the continued investment in restoring older masterpieces, we’ve come a long way from losing all our silent films. But such an infrastructure doesn’t […]
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