Premium Hollywood (Free subscription) | yesterday
As preparations continue for the impending sale of MGM, it’s an ironic state of affairs that what actually interests purchasers are not films from Louis B. Mayer’s iconic studio, the best known of which have all been sold off, but from the company’s later purchase of United Artists. Even more ironically, that was a studio [...]
Seraphic Secret (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Rudolph Valentino, Hollywood's legendary lover. The great pioneering director D.W. Griffith hired Rabbi Isadore Myers as the Jewish technical consultant on his great epic, Intolerance, 1916. Griffith was so happy with Rabbi Myer's expert advice and attention to detail that he said to the good Rabbi: “How can I ever repay you'” Replied Rabbi Myers: “I have a daughter who would like...
liebemarlene vintage (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Photo from The Fashion Spot Have I ever done a post on Mabel Normand before? I know I've put her picture up here a bunch of times, just because she's one of my top silent film stars and because she was so photogenic and was famous during my favorite silent film time for clothes (1910s D.W. Griffith era!) so she always seemed to be wearing the white frilly dresses I love. But I don't think I've ever...
The Intelligence Daily (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Ah, retirement! Before the 1950s it was something only the wealthy could afford to do. Everyone else needed an income, and most folks struggled to get by in the industrial economy as their faculties deteriorated. Back in the days before 401(k)s—let alone Social Security—older people faced the kind of pressures portrayed by filmmaker D.W. Griffith in his melodramatic 1911 silent film What...
Later On (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Read the entire post, which begins: Where to watch free movies online? Let’s get you started. First, we have listed dozens of free, high quality films that you can watch online. Then, below, you can find movie sites that feature free movie collections. Classics, international, film noir, documentaries, indies — they’re all here, waiting to be [...]
MSNBC.com (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
The Age of Retirement was one of America's most successful social reforms ever. But that era is over. A new vision of old age is emerging from the trauma of the credit crunch and the Great Recession: Forget retirement. Keep working. United States - Late-2000s recession - BusinessWeek - GreatRecession - Retirement
Open Culture (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Where to watch free movies online? Here’s a list that will get you started. We’ve listed 30 sites that feature a wide range of films, plus a healthy number of great films. Classics, international, film noir, documentaries, indies — they’re all here, waiting to be watched. So please Free Movies Online A Woman (1915) with Charlie Chaplin. Adaptation [...]
Business Week (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Financial and demographic developments point toward Americans working into their golden years. And that's a good thing
LAist (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
WWJD? Mope. | Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures Italia How do you make alt-porn even alt-ier? The Echo Park Film Center knows, with Honey Bunny v2 , a video-remix of 2008's Honey Bunny . Re-imagineer Margie Schnibbe is on hand for every moan & groan, and for all the would-be Jeremih 's out there, it's her birthday . If you prefer your alt-film on the straight and narrow, EPFC also hosts...
Once Upon a Time... (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
From a review of Jackson Lears's, Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 : The book’s title — a play on D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” — suggests two of Lears’s greatest revisionist concerns: the lasting influence of Civil War violence and “the rising significance of race.” Beginning in the 1870s, he argues,...
The mental_floss Blogs (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Whether it’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater or that iconic nine letter sign, Hollywood is rife with historical landmarks. Here are seven that had a small part in making Hollywood the movie capital of the world. 1. Knickerbocker Hotel Built in 1925, the Knickerbocker is one of the oldest hotels in Hollywood, and has a storied [...]
L. A. Times Dodgers Blog (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
The nation has become a rising beacon post-apartheid and the film industry is taking note, with home-grown filmmakers and their foreign counterparts sharing the spotlight. The nation has become a rising beacon post-apartheid and the film industry is taking note, with home-grown filmmakers and their foreign counterparts sharing the spotlight.
Film Experience Blog (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
1891 Miriam Cooper silent film star of the DW Griffith wing of Hollywood ( Intolerance, Birth of a Nation ) 1903 Dean Jagger Oscar winner for the war drama Twelve O'Clock High . Can't say I've seen that one. Anyone? 1923 Gene Callahan started working in feature films in 1960. He'd won two Oscars for Art Direction ( The Hustler and America, America ) by April, 1964. Quick study, yes? I imagine he had...
The Sheila Variations (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, from 1915, is an extraordinary accomplishment in any era. The battle scenes look like documentary footage. The crowd scenes, the cast of hundreds, his innovative use of the camera (the close-up, fast "tracking"...
Vulture (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
With The New Yorker 's Anthony Lane and this magazine's David Edelstein already bucking critical status quo with mixed-negative assessments of Lee Daniels' Oscar-contending, Oprah-endorsed Precious , famed New York Press contrarian Armond White must've known he had his work cut out for him. His review went up this afternoon, though, and it does not disappoint! "Shame on Tyer Perry and Oprah Winfrey,"...
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