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The show goes on at vintage movie theaters - Luxury- msnbc.com

The show goes on at vintage movie theaters - Luxury- msnbc.com.

The show goes on at vintage movie theaters
Experience old-school grandeur and modern technology with the latest flick
By Kathryn O'Shea-Evans, Travel and Leisure
updated 1:14 p.m. PT, Wed., March. 11, 2009

In the 1920s — back when people dressed up to see the latest Hollywood feature — movie palaces resembled cathedrals. They lured moviegoers with polished-marble foyers, ceilings glowing with tiny starlike lights, hand-painted murals, costumed ushers and — the pièce de résistance — dramas unfolding on the screen like a cast spell.

Unfortunately, many of the world’s grandest movie palaces have gone the way of silent films — nobody’s making them anymore, and very few have survived in the era of TiVo and Netflix. Luckily, though, there are still a few operating vintage movie houses scattered around the globe — some in some very unlikely places.

See the slideshow of old theatres... http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/best-vintage-movie-theaters ...and, the Web site noted in the article, Cinema Treasures ...

Movie Review - Watchmen - For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends) - NYTimes.com

Movie Review - Watchmen - For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends) - NYTimes.com.

Movie Review
Watchmen (2009)

For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends)
By A. O. SCOTT Published: March 6, 2009

[Above, screenshot, review in New York Times]

The only character in “Watchmen” who possesses actual superpowers — resulting from an accident at a top-secret government research lab in the late 1950s — is Dr. Manhattan, a blue, bald, naked dude with blank eyes and the voice of Billy Crudup. Dr. Manhattan’s existence is busy and fairly melancholy, but I do envy him his ability to perceive every moment of past and future time as a part of a continuous present.

Remembering Gene - Roger Ebert's Journal

Remembering Gene - Roger Ebert's Journal
By Roger Ebert on February 17, 2009 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (277) | TrackBacks (0)

Gene Siskel and I were like tuning forks. Strike one, and the other would pick up the same frequency. When we were in a group together, we were always intensely aware of one another. Sometimes this took the form of camaraderie, sometimes shared opinions, sometimes hostility. But we were aware. If something happened that we both thought was funny but weren't supposed to, God help us if one caught the other's eye. We almost always thought the same things were funny. That may be the best sign of intellectual communion.

Gene died ten years ago on February 20, 1999. He is in my mind almost every day. I don't want to rehearse the old stories about how we had a love/hate relationship, and how we dealt with television, and how we were both so scared the first time we went on Johnny Carson that, backstage, we couldn't think of the name of a single movie, although that story is absolutely true. Those stories have been told. I want to write about our friendship. The public image was that we were in a state of permanent feud, but nothing we felt had anything to do with image. We both knew the buttons to push on the other one, and we both made little effort to hide our feelings, warm or cold. In 1977 we were on a talk show with Buddy Rogers, once Mary Pickford's husband, and he said, "You guys have a sibling rivalry, but you both think you're the older brother."

Great retrospective tribute to Gene from his long-time partner, friend, and colleague…

Film - Turning Richard Yates’s Bleak ‘Revolutionary Road’ Into a Movie - NYTimes.com

Film - Turning Richard Yates’s Bleak ‘Revolutionary Road’ Into a Movie - NYTimes.com.

Film
Kate! Leo! Gloom! Doom! Can It Work?
By CHARLES McGRATH, Published: December 12, 2008

RICHARD YATES’S 1961 novel, “Revolutionary Road,” is far from the kind of property that typically becomes a big Hollywood movie, especially one starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in their first post-“Titanic” outing together. For one thing, the book is set back in the mid-20th century — an era that, until “Mad Men” came along to exhume it, was thought to have about as much entertainment potential as the Bronze Age. The story requires armies of boring fedora-wearing commuters to disembark from Grand Central every morning. The characters wear dopey clothes and drive boatlike cars, and everyone drinks and smokes too much — even pregnant women.

DVDs - Home Sweet Home Cinema - NYTimes.com

DVDs - Home Sweet Home Cinema - NYTimes.com.

DVDs
Home Sweet Home Cinema
By DAVE KEHR, Published: November 27, 2008

DVD sales might have slumped recently, but you’d never know it from the super-duper collectors’ editions and cunningly packaged boxed sets coming out this season, each seemingly more lavish than the last. And with Blu-ray players starting to come down in price, this may be the moment to add high definition to your home theater setup.

Here are some of the most notable film-on-DVD releases, ranging from seasonal favorites through discs for the most dedicated cinephile. The prices given are the manufacturers’ suggested retail; substantial discounts can be found with a bit of shopping around.

Critic’s Choice - Horror Movies on DVD - NYTimes.com

Critic’s Choice - Horror Movies on DVD - NYTimes.com.

Critic’s Choice New DVDs: Horror Movies

Halloween usually brings a crimson tide of horror movies on DVD, and this year is no exception.

From Warner Home Video comes the American digital debut of Albert Lewin’s 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” ($19.97). At once a slightly stuffy literary adaptation in the high MGM manner and a down-and-dirty shocker that resorts to gimmickry — sudden bursts of Technicolor in an otherwise black-and-white film — the movie seems worthy of the schlockmeister William Castle. (Though Castle would have given the trick a colorful name — Gore-o-vision! — and posted nurses in the lobby to care for potential fainting victims.)

This is a handsome, A-level production, most likely inspired by the success of the Victor Fleming-Spencer Tracy version of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” released by MGM in 1941. The luxurious period look of “Dorian Gray” earned it an Academy Award nomination for art direction and an Oscar for the veteran cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. But its primary asset is the young actor Hurd Hatfield, recruited by Lewin after a long search to play Wilde’s decadent Victorian dandy, who retains his youthful appearance while his hidden portrait festers with all the visible signs of his evil ways.

Synecdoche, New York - Movie - Review - The New York Times

Synecdoche, New York - Movie - Review - The New York Times.

Movie Review
Synecdoche, New York (2008) - NYT Critics' Pick

Dreamer, Live in the Here and Now
By MANOHLA DARGIS, Published: October 24, 2008

To say that Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now. That at least would be an appropriate response to a film about failure, about the struggle to make your mark in a world filled with people who are more gifted, beautiful, glamorous and desirable than the rest of us — we who are crippled by narcissistic inadequacy, yes, of course, but also by real horror, by zits, flab and the cancer that we know (we know!) is eating away at us and leaving us no choice but to lie down and die.

Why We Write - Number 8: Damon Lindelof « Why We Write

Why We Write - Number 8: Damon Lindelof « Why We Write.

Why We Write
January 2, 2008

Why We Write - Number 8: Damon Lindelof
Number 8

Today’s piece is written by Damon Lindelof, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of “Lost.”

I was listening to the news on NPR the other day and two things occurred to me.  First, only assholes feel the constant need to tell you they listen to NPR (does anyone ever say, “So I was watching the CW last night…”?) and I guess that makes me an asshole.  The second was that in the midst of listening to the story in question, I had finally figured out how to succinctly sum up why I write.  It goes a little something like this –

Critic’s Choice - Pristine Glory of ‘Godfather’ Films in ‘Coppola Restoration’ Set on Blu-ray and DVD - Review - NYTimes.com

Critic’s Choice - Pristine Glory of ‘Godfather’ Films in ‘Coppola Restoration’ Set on Blu-ray and DVD - Review - NYTimes.com.

New DVDs: ‘The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration’
    By DAVE KEHR, Published: September 23, 2008

‘THE GODFATHER: THE COPPOLA RESTORATION’

Many of Francis Ford Coppola’s films, including the recent “Youth Without Youth,” have been haunted by the passing of time and an acute awareness of its destructive handiwork — the sense that once a treasured moment has been lost, nothing can be done to recover it.

But now a piece of Mr. Coppola’s own youth, which also happens to be one of the greatest works in American film, has been recovered, and spectacularly so. On Tuesday Paramount Home Entertainment is issuing the three films that make up Mr. Coppola’s “Godfather” saga, miraculously rejuvenated by a team of digital restoration experts under the supervision of the film preservationist Robert A. Harris. Offered both in high-definition Blu-ray and standard DVD editions, Mr. Coppola’s three films seem to have reclaimed the golden glow of their original theatrical screenings — a glow that has been dimmed and all but extinguished over the years through a series of disappointing home video editions.

Actor Paul Newman dies at 83 - Los Angeles Times

Actor Paul Newman dies at 83 - Los Angeles Times.

Actor Paul Newman dies at 83
The blue-eyed star of 'The Hustler,' 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' was at home. He had long battled cancer.
By Lynn Smith, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 8:44 AM PDT, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman, the legendary movie star and irreverent cultural icon who created a model philanthropy fueled by profits from a salad dressing that became nearly as famous as he was, has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday at his home near Westport, Conn., after a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said.

Stunningly handsome, Newman maintained his superstar status while protecting himself from its corrupting influences through nearly 100 Broadway, television and movie roles. As an actor and director, he evolved into Hollywood's elder statesman, admired as much offscreen for his quiet generosity, unconventional business sense, race car daring, political activism and enduring marriage to actress Joanne Woodward.

I knew he was battling, until the end, and this death was coming.. 83 years, a good long life, and we have his films and legend to remember.. Butch Cassidy is dead, long live Butch Cassidy.. here's one of my favorite scenes...

Film - After 10 Years, ‘The X-Files’ Returns to the Big Screen - NYTimes.com

Film - After 10 Years, ‘The X-Files’ Returns to the Big Screen - NYTimes.com.

Film
Still Out There (in Movie Theaters)
By MARK HARRIS, Published: July 13, 2008

CHRIS CARTER, the creator of “The X-Files,” has a message for anyone who, some time during the show’s nine-season run, threw up his hands trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the extraterrestrial abductions, the black-oil aliens, the metal sinus implants, the Syndicate, the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder’s sister, Scully’s baby, Mulder’s father, Scully’s cancer, the colonists, the Lone Gunmen, Deep Throat and all the rest of the show’s staggeringly complex and often murky mythology:

You can come back now.

The Dark Knight - Movie - Review - The New York Times

The Dark Knight - Movie - Review - The New York Times.

Movie Review
The Dark Knight (2008) NYT Critics' Pick
Showdown in Gotham Town
By MANOHLA DARGIS, Published: July 18, 2008

Dark as night and nearly as long, Christopher Nolan’s new Batman movie feels like a beginning and something of an end. Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind — including “Batman Begins,” Mr. Nolan’s 2005 pleasurably moody resurrection of the series — largely by embracing an ambivalence that at first glance might be mistaken for pessimism. But no work filled with such thrilling moments of pure cinema can be rightly branded pessimistic, even a postheroic superhero movie like “The Dark Knight.”

Film - ‘Gonzo,’ a Documentary, Recalls Hunter S. Thompson - NYTimes.com

Film - ‘Gonzo,’ a Documentary, Recalls Hunter S. Thompson - NYTimes.com.

Film
Fear and Loathing on a Documentary Screen
By DAVID CARR, Published: June 29, 2008

HUNTER S. THOMPSON, who has been lionized in two feature films, served as the model for a running character in “Doonesbury” and is the subject of enough doctoral dissertations to build a bonfire, now has a documentary devoted to him, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” by Alex Gibney. Thompson, who always seemed to keep one drug-crazed eye on posterity behind his ever-present shades, would surely be pleased but not surprised.

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives.

Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Warning! Time sink alert!

I’m not really sure how long it would take to to view all 2,000+ films in this collection, housed at the Internet Archive, but this site is really like a bag of potato chips. You can’t consume just one.

    Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. Getty Images represents the collection for stock footage sale, and almost 2,000 key titles are available here. As a whole, the collection currently contains over 10% of the total production of ephemeral films between 1927 and 1987, and it may be the most complete and varied collection in existence of films from these poorly preserved genres.

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards - Los Angeles Times

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards - Los Angeles Times.

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, June 17, 2008

[Screenshot image from the article]

Stan Winston, the renowned makeup, creature- and visual-effects wizard whose memorable work on "Aliens," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Jurassic Park" earned him four Academy Awards, has died. He was 62.

Winston died of complications from multiple myeloma Sunday at his home in Malibu, said his son, actor Matt Winston.

"The entertainment industry has lost a genius and I lost one of my best friends," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of "Terminator" fame, said in a statement Monday. "Stan's work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever."

Great SFX creator and genius, he will be missed, and gone way too young...