Tag: video

You can now watch Jean-Luc Godard’s first narrative film

Once in a while, a lost film appears, delighting film buffs and historians. In the past few years, we’ve seen a lost Méliès film, a Hitchcock, and a Star Wars-related short all turn up after decades of absence. But this weekend, someone uploaded the Holy Grail: Jean-Luc Godard’s first narrative film. Une Femme Coquette (embedded … Continue reading “You can now watch Jean-Luc Godard’s first narrative film”

Once in a while, a lost film appears, delighting film buffs and historians. In the past few years, we’ve seen a lost Méliès film, a Hitchcock, and a Star Wars-related short all turn up after decades of absence. But this weekend, someone uploaded the Holy Grail: Jean-Luc Godard’s first narrative film.

Une Femme Coquette (embedded above) was suddenly and unexpectedly uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday. Although it’s not a masterwork, it’s enormously historically significant. As The A.V. Club‘s Ignatiy Vishnevetsky says, you can see some of Godard’s early tics and style that would eventually become influential in the French New Wave.

We’re stunned that more and more films continue to be unearthed, especially such important ones. Come on, The Day the Clown Cried!

Here, have an R2-D2 bird

We’ve been posting here a bit less frequently while we handle start-of-the-semester business, but  with the understandably rising national stress levels, we wanted to send out the week with something positive. So, please enjoy this bird that sounds like R2-D2. Happy Friday!

We’ve been posting here a bit less frequently while we handle start-of-the-semester business, but  with the understandably rising national stress levels, we wanted to send out the week with something positive.

So, please enjoy this bird that sounds like R2-D2. Happy Friday!

The best movies of the year – spliced into one video

Every year, film critic David Ehrlich puts together a montage of what he considered the 25 best films of the year. Ehrlich’s tastes tend to lean towards interesting visuals, but we’re not complaining. His montages are visual feasts, so he gets to pick whatever he wants. Moonlight tops the list, understandably given the praise we’ve … Continue reading “The best movies of the year – spliced into one video”

Every year, film critic David Ehrlich puts together a montage of what he considered the 25 best films of the year. Ehrlich’s tastes tend to lean towards interesting visuals, but we’re not complaining. His montages are visual feasts, so he gets to pick whatever he wants. Moonlight tops the list, understandably given the praise we’ve heard.

This year’s supercut has a few surprising selections, including Beyonce’s Lemonade and the ESPN documentary series OJ: Made in America. We also love Ehrlich’s choice of using music from other notable movies this year. There are a few bonus movies thrown in at the start, too. Ghostbusters wouldn’t make the top 25, but we’re happy to see the Holtzmann dance again.

Look inside the Library of Congress’s explosive film vault

Drive down to Culpepper, VA and you’ll find the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, home to the Library of Congress’s film archive. This is where preservationists keep a massive storehouse of tens of thousands of films – classics, flops, and even reportedly Jerry Lewis’s unreleased disaster The Day the Clown Cried. YouTube channel Great Big Story … Continue reading “Look inside the Library of Congress’s explosive film vault”

Drive down to Culpepper, VA and you’ll find the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, home to the Library of Congress’s film archive. This is where preservationists keep a massive storehouse of tens of thousands of films – classics, flops, and even reportedly Jerry Lewis’s unreleased disaster The Day the Clown Cried.

YouTube channel Great Big Story managed to a rare peek behind the scenes, and the level of security needed for the collection is astounding. Archivist George Willeman explains that many early films in their collection are printed on nitrate, an explosive chemical that could probably take down building (remember the ending of Inglourious Basterds?). So, much of the archive is kept in a former nuclear bunker.

Thankfully, we don’t work with nitrate, so the AU Library isn’t going to blow up. Let’s thank the archivists doing the heavy lifting.

No, a silent film of a train probably didn’t cause mass hysteria

You’ve probably heard this one before: back during the dawn of motion pictures, a short movie showing a train heading for the camera caused audiences to freak out and try to run from the theater. It’s a funny anecdote about how much of an impact film made – and it makes those audiences look pretty … Continue reading “No, a silent film of a train probably didn’t cause mass hysteria”

You’ve probably heard this one before: back during the dawn of motion pictures, a short movie showing a train heading for the camera caused audiences to freak out and try to run from the theater. It’s a funny anecdote about how much of an impact film made – and it makes those audiences look pretty naive.

But as Atlas Obscura’s Eric Grundhauser explains, this probably never actually happened. We can trace the story to a specific film (1898’s Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat), the lack of circumstantial evidence like news stories and police accounts of a mobscene suggests this was just a myth. If anything, it was a metaphor for the powerful impact of film, one that spread so quickly it was parodied in a 1901 short (embedded above).

So although audiences probably didn’t actually panic, the mental image was real. It might’ve been exaggerated shorthand. Think of it like a turn-of-the-century straw man argument.

The first Star Wars trailer is missing a whole lot

For Throwback Thursday (do we have to use the hashtag if it’s on a blog?), here’s a neat piece of film history. In December 1976, the first trailer for Star Wars was released, about half a year before the movie. Episode Nothing supplied some context in a recent blog post explaining why it looks so … Continue reading “The first Star Wars trailer is missing a whole lot”

For Throwback Thursday (do we have to use the hashtag if it’s on a blog?), here’s a neat piece of film history. In December 1976, the first trailer for Star Wars was released, about half a year before the movie. Episode Nothing supplied some context in a recent blog post explaining why it looks so rough.

Star Wars was still a work-in-progress at this point in its production. Apart from a few quick space shots, most of the trailer avoids scenes with special effects; the only lightsabers that appear in screen weren’t colo red in yet, for instance. And perhaps most glaringly in hindsight, the trailer doesn’t have the iconic John Williams score. Without that adventurous music, the movie seems almost dour.

It’s a fun glimpse at how a studio decided to promote a movie they didn’t realize would be a juggernaut. The whole thing is a dark mishmash that reportedly cost about $4000. We guarantee that if 20th Century Fox knew what would follow, they wouldn’t throw together something like this.

Help a beloved LA film library preserve their old VHSes

If you read this blog, you know we have an affinity for digital preservation and weird, niche films that aren’t available anymore. We do our best to serve the university community in those areas, but there are other groups with their own missions. Take Vidiots, a video rental store that’s served Los Angeles film nerds … Continue reading “Help a beloved LA film library preserve their old VHSes”

If you read this blog, you know we have an affinity for digital preservation and weird, niche films that aren’t available anymore. We do our best to serve the university community in those areas, but there are other groups with their own missions. Take Vidiots, a video rental store that’s served Los Angeles film nerds (including directors like David O. Russell) for decades with its massive library of hard-to-find titles.

Now, Vidiots has launched a crowdfunding campaign to take wants to take their collection into the modern era by digitally preserving as much of their collection as possible. Vidiots has thousands of rare VHSes that are presumably deteriorating and may be the last copies remaining of certain films, and Vidiots wants to digitize those tapes, license them, and check them out to whoever wants a copy. Additional funds will go to creating programming to showcase these films. This is a huge benefit to the LA film community – which more or less overlaps exactly with Hollywood.

If you want to support a good cause that makes the world of film a better place, consider kicking a few dollars their way. Their campaign has about a month left to raise $45,000, any amount helps.

Every Frame a Painting looks at the surprisingly unmemorable state of modern film soundtracks

Every Frame a Painting continues to be one of the best online film criticism video series. Usually the channel looks at editing and composition, but this time, creator Tony Zhou turned his sights to a very difficult film question: why are modern film soundtracks so uninspiring? Zhou puts forward a cohesive argument, with the Marvel … Continue reading “Every Frame a Painting looks at the surprisingly unmemorable state of modern film soundtracks”

Every Frame a Painting continues to be one of the best online film criticism video series. Usually the channel looks at editing and composition, but this time, creator Tony Zhou turned his sights to a very difficult film question: why are modern film soundtracks so uninspiring?

Zhou puts forward a cohesive argument, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as its focus. Over the last twenty years, movie soundtracks have become background music that matches rather than sets the mood of what’s happening on-screen. That’s not inherently good or bad, but it’s less memorable than the fanfares and character themes from older blockbusters.

The video spends much of its time addressing a bigger concern, the use of “temp music” in editing. During production, films are often scored with placeholder music from other composers, frequently soundtracks from other movies. Increasingly, rather than starting from scratch, filmmakers ask composers to match the placeholder music, resulting in a soundtracks gradually sounding identical and borrowing the same generic structure and composition.

Speaking unobjectively, we hope that turns around. We understand why tone-setting scores have become popular, but Alan Silvestri’s Back to the Future music is far more lovable than his work on The Avengers.

SOC’s Media that Matter series kicks off with Thank You for Playing

Every semester, SOC’s Media that Matter film series highlights social issues as captured on the screen, from race issues in America to the ethics of food. It’s a very AU film series in the best way, and often, the screening includes a discussion with the filmmakers. Last semester, the series included a screening of Best … Continue reading “SOC’s Media that Matter series kicks off with Thank You for Playing”

Every semester, SOC’s Media that Matter film series highlights social issues as captured on the screen, from race issues in America to the ethics of food. It’s a very AU film series in the best way, and often, the screening includes a discussion with the filmmakers. Last semester, the series included a screening of Best Picture winner Spotlight and an interview with then-Boston Globe editor Martin Barton.

Media that Matter starts again this Wednesday with a screening of Thank You for Playing, a documentary about the development of the video game That Dragon, Cancer – an autobiographical game by Amy and Ryan Green about caring for their infant, who was diagnosed with cancer. That Dragon, Cancer is a raw, emotional experience to play, and Thank You for Playing looks at the people who chose to tell their story through an unexpected medium.

The screening begins at 6pm on Wednesday, September 14th, in the McKinley Building’s Forman Theater; the film will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers led by AU Game Lab’s Lindsay Grace.

Fandor spotlights twenty acclaimed films by women

Fandor has established itself as the premier digital film service for cinema buffs: in addition to their streaming library, they run Keyframe, a daily film essay and video blog. If you haven’t followed them already and like film, you probably should. For one of their videos (embedded above), Keyframe polled fifty film critics about their … Continue reading “Fandor spotlights twenty acclaimed films by women”

Fandor has established itself as the premier digital film service for cinema buffs: in addition to their streaming library, they run Keyframe, a daily film essay and video blog. If you haven’t followed them already and like film, you probably should. For one of their videos (embedded above), Keyframe polled fifty film critics about their favorite works directed by women and created a montage of the top twenty results.

As with the cinematographer interviews, the question is whether it’s productive to view films primarily through the lens of the filmmaker’s gender. In short, it is. As the video’s creator Scout Tafoya says, women still face an uphill battle in terms of criticism, funding, and most troublingly acknowledgment for their work. “Unless we make noise,” Tafoya adds, “we’ll allow it to continue.”

Keyframe did their part, so we’re sharing it. Take at look at the striking imagery from twenty films by women. (Meshes of the Afternoon is unlike anything we’ve seen in a while.)