Tag: Pinterest

Halloween nears! Check out our horror movie collection

Halloween weekend is but two weeks away, and like most film nerds, we’re ready for horror movie season. Because it would be weird to watch Halloween in April, right? Almost 100 years have passed since Nosferatu and some of the earliest feature-length horror films, and they’re still as terrifying as ever. If you’re looking for … Continue reading “Halloween nears! Check out our horror movie collection”

Halloween weekend is but two weeks away, and like most film nerds, we’re ready for horror movie season. Because it would be weird to watch Halloween in April, right?

Almost 100 years have passed since Nosferatu and some of the earliest feature-length horror films, and they’re still as terrifying as ever. If you’re looking for a horror movie to watch, you have nearly a century of choices that still hold up. So where do you start?

Our horror-themed Pinterest board includes 200 movies in our collection, from The Babadook to the old Phantom of the Opera. You might recognize a few classics like The Evil Dead, but if you’re looking to jump off the usual path, you could try something like zombie drama Maggie or the extremely descriptive Slumber Party Massacre.

You could watch 10 horror movies from the AU Library every day until Halloween and still not make it through everything. It’s a deep genre! You should probably start on that today.

Have war films outlasted our actual wars? xkcd digs for an answer

Randall Munroe’s What If?, one of the most popular new books of the year, scientifically guesstimates the answers to absurd hypothetical questions. Usually these involve pushing the laws of physics to their breaking point, but once in a while, they just deal with situations of absurd, immeasurable scale. After spending a lazy afternoon browsing the … Continue reading “Have war films outlasted our actual wars? xkcd digs for an answer”

Randall Munroe’s What If?, one of the most popular new books of the year, scientifically guesstimates the answers to absurd hypothetical questions. Usually these involve pushing the laws of physics to their breaking point, but once in a while, they just deal with situations of absurd, immeasurable scale. After spending a lazy afternoon browsing the What If webs… er, doing research, we’ve found a scenario that’s directly relevant to our collections: are the total running times of all World War II films longer than the war itself?

Using the massive amounts of tags and data accrued by IMDb – and some clever averaging to save time – Munroe estimates that there are about 300 days of World War II films and movies. That’s only about a seventh as long as the war itself, but that’s still a great ratio for a multi-year international conflict. Some smaller wars that lasted for only a few days have an edge, but no major conflict comes as close as World War II. It speaks volumes about our broader cultural fascination with one of the last wars that people still refer to as “great.”

We don’t have all 300 days worth of World War II films in our collection, but we recognize that war films are a popular and perennially relevant genre. To this end, we want to direct you to our war films Pinterest board, which contains over 200 movies ranging from Enemy at the Gates to Courage Under Fire. That’s good for about a solid month of war films – still shorter than the Falklands War.

San Diego Comic-Con begins! Celebrate with movies based on graphic novels

Every July, over 100,000 people descend on southern California for San Diego Comic-Con, the world’s biggest event for movies, comics, games, and all things nerdtacular. The convention has grown from its humble origins as a comic book show to a pop culture juggernaut, attracting everyone from small-time comic producers to the cast of The Hunger … Continue reading “San Diego Comic-Con begins! Celebrate with movies based on graphic novels”

Every July, over 100,000 people descend on southern California for San Diego Comic-Con, the world’s biggest event for movies, comics, games, and all things nerdtacular. The convention has grown from its humble origins as a comic book show to a pop culture juggernaut, attracting everyone from small-time comic producers to the cast of The Hunger Games. Expect big announcements on that thing you’re looking forward to, no matter what it is.

We wanted to pay some sort of tribute to Comic-Con, but it would be absurd and impossible to celebrate all the movies that have appeared at the event. Instead, we want to direct your attention to our Pinterest board for graphic novel adaptations. While we do have a good number of films based on superhero comics (the usual suspects, like Batman and X-Men), our graphic novel board highlights some lesser-known adaptations, such as the terrific Ghost World and Persepolis. Comics and graphic novels have a great range, and we think these select movies are a good way to celebrate that.

Realistically speaking, we’ll probably be glued to all the news spilling out of San Diego this weekend. But let’s not forget that Comic Con is, at its core, about graphic novels and the unique artistic experiences that come from them. Plus. they make good movies too!

The film event of the year: We update our Best Pictures Pinterest!

Tonight, nine films will battle for the ultimate honor in cinema: a place on our Best Picture Winners Pinterest board.* This esteemed list contains 83 of the greatest films of all time, as voted on each year by the film community. From modern successes like No Country for Old Men to classics like Gone of … Continue reading “The film event of the year: We update our Best Pictures Pinterest!”

Tonight, nine films will battle for the ultimate honor in cinema: a place on our Best Picture Winners Pinterest board.* This esteemed list contains 83 of the greatest films of all time, as voted on each year by the film community. From modern successes like No Country for Old Men to classics like Gone of the Wind and Ben-Hur, this highly prestigious Pinterest board is a Who’s Who of a century of quality films. Controversy abounds in this list, such as the decision to pin How Green Was My Valley in 1941 over Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon, but this Pinterest board is still widely regarded as the standard-bearer for film acclamation.

Each films on this list of available for checkout in the AU Library. Follow the links on each pin to see whether it’s available.

*Additionally, movies added to this Pinterest board are also presented with an Academy Award.

Hear Oliver Stone on JFK’s legacy TONIGHT!

Here’s last-minute announcement: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone will be on campus this evening with friend-of-Media-Services Prof. Peter Kuznick to screen an episode of their Showtime documentary series, The Untold History of the United States. The event is part of AU’s commemoration of John F. Kennedy’s landmark commencement address at AU in which he heralded … Continue reading “Hear Oliver Stone on JFK’s legacy TONIGHT!”

Here’s last-minute announcement: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone will be on campus this evening with friend-of-Media-Services Prof. Peter Kuznick to screen an episode of their Showtime documentary series, The Untold History of the United States.

The event is part of AU’s commemoration of John F. Kennedy’s landmark commencement address at AU in which he heralded a future of peace. Tonight’s episode is, appropriately, about JFK’s attempts to find peace during the Cold War and resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It all goes down at 8pm tonight in Ward 2. Take this opportunity to see and speak with a filmmaker whose unconventional, distinctive take on history has cemented him as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation.

(If you’re itching for some more Stone, our Pinterest page has a board for all our Oliver Stone movies.)

It’s the Oscars!

The Oscars are tonight! After weeks of buildup, speculation, and the most use of the word “Argo” on record, the Academy will reveal the results of the most prestigious and contentious film awards ceremony at 8pm in the Dolby Theatre. We’re very excited in Media Services, if you couldn’t tell from our weeks of Academy … Continue reading “It’s the Oscars!”

The Oscars are tonight! After weeks of buildup, speculation, and the most use of the word “Argo” on record, the Academy will reveal the results of the most prestigious and contentious film awards ceremony at 8pm in the Dolby Theatre. We’re very excited in Media Services, if you couldn’t tell from our weeks of Academy Award-related posts.

Naturally, many of the films nominated for awards are still in theaters, so we can’t really advertise them in our collection. But now is as good of a time as any to look back at big winners from previous years. Our Pinterest page has a list of all the Best Picture winners in our collection, with only a few missing (some of the older winners have not been released on DVD). Everyone’s immediately familiar with The Artist and Slumdog Millionaire given their recent wins, but have you seen The Sting or Midnight Cowboy lately?

We’ll be around all evening. If you don’t feel like watching the ceremony or need to detox from the awards season, come grab one of the 82 winners in our collection. (Or 83 if Argo wins!)

Cozy up with some romantic films

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and there’s no avoiding it if you’re in any center of commerce. If you’re one of those people who likes this annual, culturally mandated celebration of love and greeting cards, we’re got you covered. Our Pinterest page has a section for romantic films and … Continue reading “Cozy up with some romantic films”

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and there’s no avoiding it if you’re in any center of commerce. If you’re one of those people who likes this annual, culturally mandated celebration of love and greeting cards, we’re got you covered.

Our Pinterest page has a section for romantic films and romantic comedies. Right now we have 160 in our collection, ranging from Nicholas Sparks movies (The Notebook, HU DVD 4924) to Hollywood classics (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, HU DVD 501).

Come grab them before they’re gone. You don’t want to end up a Blue Valentine (HU DVD 8296).

Watch last-minute campaign and election movies

After what feels like two grueling years, the presidential election is finally upon us. The first polls open in about 12 hours and close in about 24. This has been a knockdown-dragout fight to the finish… but if you’re reading this, you’re probably part of the AU community, so you’ve gotta love it. If you … Continue reading “Watch last-minute campaign and election movies”

After what feels like two grueling years, the presidential election is finally upon us. The first polls open in about 12 hours and close in about 24. This has been a knockdown-dragout fight to the finish… but if you’re reading this, you’re probably part of the AU community, so you’ve gotta love it.

If you aren’t obsessively checking fivethirtyeight or the AP newswire, and if you have no pressing responsibilities (like class or a job), there are still a few hours left to get your political fix. Our Pinterest page for US political campaigns and elections has 44 documentaries and feature films about elections, from tense fictional scandals (The Ides of March, HU DVD 2884) to in-the-moment documentaries of real political wins (The War Room, HU DVD 1013). Give the list a browse and watch one that gets you fired up and ready to go.

For those on campus during election night, there will be results parties in the Ward Circle Building (Rooms 1 and 2), the SIS Founders Room, and the Tavern. The library may additionally be showing returns in The Mud Box.

Pinterest highlight: Horror movies

Time for some first-person editorializing for a second: I absolutely love Halloween. Sure, you have all your other seasonal holidays about togetherness, family, and patriotism, but Halloween celebrates fear. Can’t beat that. I only bring this up because patrons at Media Services seem to love Halloween too. We’re still two weeks out from the spookiest … Continue reading “Pinterest highlight: Horror movies”

Time for some first-person editorializing for a second: I absolutely love Halloween. Sure, you have all your other seasonal holidays about togetherness, family, and patriotism, but Halloween celebrates fear. Can’t beat that.

I only bring this up because patrons at Media Services seem to love Halloween too. We’re still two weeks out from the spookiest of nights, and our horror movie collection is already starting to leave the shelves. Given the absolute glut of horror films out here, it can be hard to figure out what’s out there beyond the classics.

As it turns out, we have about 160 great horror movies available for you to take out of the library. Check out our Horror pinboard on Pinterest for a visual guide to our horror collection. Halloween is old hat at this point. Are you ready to take on Hausu?