Friday, June 13, 2008

Free Rare Silent Films Online! Free! Free!

Here it is, high-quality preserved/restored rare, rare, rare silent films uploaded by the best European film archives:

EUROPA FILM TREASURES









Including Bucking Broadway (1917, John Ford) starring Harry Carey, 52 mins.















Yes, there is full-screen mode.

All thanks go to the amazing Bioscope for bringing this to our attention here. (I encourage you to read the Bioscope post for help in pointing out some of the more interesting films to start with.)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fun Diversions

In lieu of a proper post, here are two interesting items from other blogs I enjoyed recently:

A short film called "Frames of Reference" from Cinema Styles.
(Original post here.)



Trailer for Heavenly Bodies (1984, Lawrence Dane) from Cat's Blog.
(Original post here.)

Monday, June 02, 2008

Téchiné and De Sica Uncovered

Browsing DVD Beaver has again helped me uncover works by great directors hidden in packaged box sets. This time it's the Catherine Deneuve Collection, from Lionsgate, which quietly hides a film by the excellent French director André Téchiné.

Hôtel des Amériques (aka Hotel America) (1981)

This time the Amazon page doesn't even list the individual film titles. (They have them run together in one long run-on sentence with no spaces in some tiny section of the page.)

For me Téchiné is worth a look because of Les Voleurs (aka Thieves) (1996), Ma Saison préferée (My Favorite Season) (1993), both with Deneuve and Daniel Auteuil (Les Voleurs also features the excellent Laurence Côte),and Rendez-vous (1985) with Juliette Binoche. (All are on DVD except for Les Voleurs, which is on VHS, although Ma Saison préferée is apparently out of print.) Alice et Martin (1998) is also on DVD, although I was disappointed when I saw it in the theater. Perhaps I need to see it again. (Although it appears that, too, is out of print. Where's the love for Téchiné?) Téchiné has a very evasive style and perhaps can be too elusive at times. Maybe that caught up with me on Alice et Martin, but in any case, I will be excited to check out Hôtel des Amériques on Netflix. Téchiné is usually most well-known for Wild Reeds, which I still haven't seen.

Another Lionsgate set, The Sophia Loren Collection, hides I Girasoli (aka Sunflower) (1970, Italy), by Vittorio de Sica, that costars Marcello Mastroianni! Wow, I wish I had time to watch all these. As further evidence of how these films can slip by you, IMDB's handy DVD link is grayed-out for this film, so if you were researching De Sica via IMDB you might not realize this one was available.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Pinoy-Pinay

In lieu of a post, here is another short film I made.
(4 ½ mins long.)