Kobal Collection

The Kobal Collection is a preeminent collection of images related to the motion picture industry, primarily U.S. with some international content. Established by John Kobal, the collection numbers more than one million photos from early cinema to modern day including publicity stills, portraits, celebrity photos, and costume shots. Take note the next time you read a book about Hollywood or the film industry -- it is likely that Kobal images have been included.

I am grateful to Lauretta Dives from The Picture Desk -- Kobal Collection -- for granting me 50 images to use in my blog postings. With this collection, I am launching a new series of postings with focus on costume designers, the year 1939 in film, films from the 1970s and Billy Wilder! All beautifully illustrated with images from the Kobal Collection.

One for the casebooks!

Netflix -- what happened?

See story in The New York Times.

Arts Endowment Trims Support for PBS Shows

The New York Times reported this morning that the "National Endowment for the Arts made sweeping cuts in its support of established PBS shows under the 2012 Arts in Media grants which were announced Wednesday morning. In its place, the endowment awarded large grants to an array of gaming and Web-based projects."

The total amount awarded was down $4 million from last year but resulted in an increase in the number of grants awarded -- 78 up from 64 in 2011.


Big hit to "The PBS NewsHour -- and WNET received a grant towards a new series "The Electric Animation Festival."

Emphasis this year- - funding for public media and not just broadcast.

Ordinary People (1980)

Ordinary People is an intimate portrait of a family in crisis. The film, Robert Redford's directorial debut, cuts to the core of the family dynamics within an affluent WASP family in crisis. The outstanding cast includes Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch and Elizabeth McGovern. Based on the best-selling novel by Judith Guest, the story focuses on Conrad Jarrett (Hutton), a teenager struggling with his remorse for not having saved his older brother from drowning. The parents, portrayed by Moore and Sutherland, behave as if everything is normal. Beneath the surface, the tension within the household is near a breaking point. Judd Hirsch is excellent as the psychiatrist helping Conrad after his attempted suicide. Mary Tyler Moore provides a gripping portrayal of an emotionally challenged woman. Donald Sutherland provides a tender performance of a man trying to understand and help his ailing family. Timothy Hutton delivers a sensitive portrayal of the troubled teenager.

Alvin Sargent adapted the novel for the screen. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Check out this new book!

EARLY CINEMA TODAY: THE ART OF PROGRAMMING AND LIVE PERFORMANCE ed. by Martin Loiperdinger. The essays focus on innovative presentations of old films -- a must read for anyone interested in early cinema.

From the publisher's website:

"This volume presents a number of innovative projects; Mariann Lewinsky’s A Hundred Years Ago programmes for scholars and archivists at the Bologne Festival, Eric de Kuyper’s integrating films from the 1910s into elaborated performance events, both curators’ jointly programmed From the Deep series at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Madeleine Bernstorff’s and Mariann Lewinsky’s weekend in Berlin with films related to the suffragettes’ movement, Vanessa Toulmin’s numerous shows of early local films for today’s local people, and last but not least the Crazy Cinématographe, the Luxemburg fairground cinematograph show curated by Nicole Dahlen and Claude Bertemes, which includes front-shows and film narrators, the essentials of fairground performance. All these remarkable appropriations of early cinema offer a variety of new perspectives to experience and understand what cinema has been in the beginning."

Taylor Biography

A new biography of Elizabeth Taylor -- "Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Notice" --focuses on Taylor as a feminist on the screen and in her personal life. The author, M.G. Lord, discusses a number of important film roles where Taylor portrays strong-willed and independent women.

Read the review from the New York Times.

The Canyons

The Canyons is a contemporary thriller to be directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis -- follow the development on Facebook.

American Smart Cinema

Check out this new title by Claire Perkins and published by Edinburgh University Press.

From the publisher's website, "American Smart Cinema examines a contemporary type of United States filmmaking that exists at the intersection of mainstream, art and independent cinema and often gives rise to absurd, darkly comic and nihilistic effects. Tracing the emergence of smart cinema amidst the texts and debates of the 1990s 'irony epidemic', the book describes the unstable tone and 'double' speech of such films as: The Royal Tenenbaums, Adaptation, The Squid and the Whale, Palindromes, The Last Days of Disco, Flirt, Ghost World, Your Friends and Neighbors, Donnie Darko and The Savages. "

‘Robert Johnson at 100’ at the Apollo Theater

In honor of Robert Johnson (see New York Times article on the event), enjoy this clip from the Coen Brothers amazing film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

The Right Stuff

In his New York Times review of The Right Stuff (1983), Vincent Canby wrote about the film, "...rousing, funny screen adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book about Project Mercury and America's first astronauts, is probably the brightest and the best rookie/cadet movie ever made, though the rookies and cadets are seasoned pilots and officers."

The film is a masterpiece -- sensational and timeless. Given the state of the too political, political scene in the United States today, this film makes you yearn for the focused determination of America's first astronauts -- motivated by excellence, challenge, intelligence, and many by patriotism and love of country.

Most of the film centers on the training of the astronauts and the development of the space program with successful flights in the 1960s. These first Americans were selected for their experience, education, and physical stamina. The film does not shy away from reliving the rigorous testing these men had to undergo to make the team which included Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn), Virgil "Gus' Grissom (Fred Ward), John Glenn (Ed Harris), Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank), Walter Schirra (Lance Henriksen), Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid), and Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin).

Canby rightly notes that Chuck Yeager, as played by Sam Shepherd, is a central force of the film and story. Yeager was the first man in the world to break the sound barrier and truly had the right stuff. Early in the film we see Yeager on his record flight -- a flight sequence that will take your breath away. Thank you Philip Kaufman for casting the real Chuck Yeager as the bartender at Poncho's (Poncho is played by a wonderful Kim Stanley) -- which serves as reassurance to the audience -- yes, he survives!

With Donald Moffat as Lyndon B. Johnson and a wonderful cast of women as the "wives" including Veronica Cartwright and Pamela Reed -- there is a good amount of archival footage placing the film in its historical context.

Direction and screenplay by Philip Kaufman, original music by Bill Conti, and cinematography by Caleb Deschanel.