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Posted by: Mike Mashon
A program of animated shorts selected to demonstrate the concept and basic elements of sound design, as well as four acclaimed animated features, will be screened this week as part of the Film Foundation’s “Story of the Movies: The Animation Universe” development workshop for classroom teachers. Held at the Packard Campus from July 31—Aug. 2, …
Posted in: National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
The following is a guest post from Carla Arton, a Processing Technician in the Recorded Sound Section. Here at the Packard Campus of the Library’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, we not only pride ourselves on providing excellent reference and preservation services for our collections, our staff also actively participates in ongoing professional development. In addition …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Thursday, July 24 (7:30 p.m.) Applause (Paramount, 1929) This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film for both stage director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian’s debut to that of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane because of his flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
In a collection of 1.4 million film and video items, there are bound to be a more than a few oddities, those moments when your head tilts and eyebrows arch into that universal gesture of puzzlement and wonder. It happens a lot around here; rare is the week I don’t hear somebody talking about an …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Once upon a time, there was a period in American cinema—roughly 1930 to 1934—that with dewy-eyed nostalgia is celebrated as a last great flowering of bold, envelope-pushing, taboo-busting, sex-and-mayhem laden movies before the whip hand of censorship came down and put a stop to all the nonsense. These few years are shorthanded as the “pre-Code” …
Posted in: Motion Pictures
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Our focus this week is on the third edition of the film identification workshop Mostly Lost, including a special, additional Saturday program at the State Theatre. Thursday, July 17 (7:30 p.m.) Linda (First Division, 1929) Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport) directed this silent drama starring Helen Foster as Linda Stillwater, a bright young girl from …
Posted in: Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
I know lots of people whose passion for collecting films—and by that I mean good old fashioned celluloid reels—was inextricably linked to their passion for sharing them with friends and family. We usually associate “living room cinema” with home movies, but back in the day there were also countless numbers of junior impresarios presenting programs …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures
Posted by: Mike Mashon
This week the Packard Campus Theater presents a fond and howlingly funny triple tribute to actor/director/screenwriter Harold Ramis, who passed away last February. Thursday, July 10 (7:30 p.m.) Caddyshack (Orion, 1980, R-rated*) Harold Ramis made his directorial debut and co-wrote this comedy classic that follows the travails of a young caddy as he gets caught …
Posted in: National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Last week my colleague Daniel Blazek told the interesting story of how the Library came to acquire audio transcription discs of 1960s-era Tonight Show broadcasts via the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Of course, the very existence of these discs is, to say the least, unexpected—record discs of TV show audio?—and given the preservation …
Posted in: Copyright, Film/Video, Television