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” Is this your wife? What a lovely throat!”

There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music and I’d go as far as saying there’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. And I’ll go even farther by saying that there’s nothing better than the 1922 silent spooker Nosferatu accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra which is an event that will be taking place Thursday night, October 18th at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s Midtown Brewery & Biergarten (3229 Washington Ave, St. Louis 63103). Doors open at 6pm and the movie unspools after dark!

Admission Is Free !!!

I’ve seen Nosferatu with live music before and have even shown a 25-minute cut of the film at my old monthly Super-8 Movie Madness show with live keyboard accompaniment (by the talented Linda Gurney), but seeing the full-length version near...

Chicago – It’s the opening Sunday of the NFL, and what better time to celebrate the films that celebrate the sport that celebrate the ballers. Film history has a steroid-free stack of pro football films in all categories. Patrick McDonald, Jon Lennon Espino and Spike Walters of HollywoodChicago.com take on three prime examples.

Da Boyz! James Caan and Billy Dee Williams Bear Down in ‘Brian’s Song’

Photo credit: Columbia TriStar Home Video

The earliest known footage of a football game was a 1903 match-up between powerhouses Princeton and Yale, filmed by Thomas Edison. The earliest narrative films dealt with the college game, from Harold Lloyd’s “The Freshman” (1925) to the Marx Brothers in “Horse Feathers” (1932). An early example of a pro football movie is “The Cowboy Quarterback” (1939), which involves a scout for the “Chicago Packers” (gee, even in olden days screenwriters were lazy as shit).

The backfield in motion and HollywoodChicago.

'The Doll' with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig: Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring 'the German Mary Pickford' has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy 'Seven Chances.' 'The Doll': San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the German Mary Pickford – Ossi Oswalda Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (So This Is Paris, The Wedding March), the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation The Doll / Die Puppe (1919) has one of the most amusing mise-en-scènes ever recorded. The set is created by cut-out figures that gradually come to life; then even more cleverly, they commence the fast-paced action. It all begins when a shy, confirmed bachelor, Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), is ordered by his rich uncle (Max Kronert), the Baron von Chanterelle, to marry for a large sum of money. As to be expected, mayhem ensues. Lancelot is forced to flee from the hordes of eligible maidens, eventually...

'Amazing Tales from the Archives': Pioneering female documentarian Aloha Wanderwell Baker remembered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival – along with the largely forgotten sound-on-cylinder technology and the Jean Desmet Collection. 'Amazing Tales from the Archives': San Francisco Silent Film Festival & the 'sound-on-cylinder' system Fans of the earliest sound films would have enjoyed the first presentation at the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held June 1–4: “Amazing Tales from the Archives,” during which Library of Congress' Nitrate Film Vault Manager George Willeman used a wealth of enjoyable film clips to examine the Thomas Edison Kinetophone process. In the years 1913–1914, long before The Jazz Singer and Warner Bros.' sound-on-disc technology, the sound-on-cylinder system invaded the nascent film industry with a collection of “talkies.” The sound was scratchy and muffled, but “recognizable.” Notably, this system focused on dialogue, rather than music or sound effects. As with the making of other recordings at the time, the...

Netflix has revealed the trailer for Barry, a new original film featuring Devon Terell as a young Barack Obama. The film was first screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival before Netflix acquired it. The plot takes place in 1981 when Obama moved to New York to start his junior year at Colombia University. […]

The post ‘Barry,’ New Netflix Film On Obama’s College Days, Teaser & Release Date appeared first on uInterview.

” Is this your wife? What a lovely throat!”

There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music and I’d go as far as saying there’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. And I’ll go even farther by saying that there’s nothing better than the 1922 silent spooker Nosferatu accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra which is an event that will be taking place Thursday night, October 20th at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s Midtown Brewery & Biergarten (3229 Washington Ave, St. Louis 63103). Doors open at 6pm and the movie unspools after dark!

Admission Is Free !!!

I’ve seen Nosferatu with live music before and have even shown a 25-minute cut of the film at my old monthly Super-8 Movie Madness show with live keyboard accompaniment (by the talented Linda Gurney), but seeing the full-length version near...

There is something inherently frustrating about the prospect of university life. As a college student, you can feel as if you’re stuck in limbo. You’re obviously no longer a child as sex, drugs and alcohol pervade your everyday world, yet you’re not really an adult — totally free of the burdens of the 9-to-5 rat race for at least a few more years. A feeling of unease can fall over you, as there’s always a kegger or a party to attend while lovers change partners more often than bed-sheets.

Everybody Wants Some!!, the long-awaited spiritual sequel to Richard Linklater‘s classic comedy Dazed & Confused is now out in theaters. In the film, a college freshman (Blake Jenner) arrives at school to find that his new baseball teammates are an out-of-control, alcohol-fueled army of irresponsible party-dudes.

To celebrate, we compiled ten of the finest college movies, all ranging wildly in style and tone.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 7th annual TCM Classic Film Festival on April 28thwith a 40th Anniversary screening of the Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman political thriller All The President’s Men (1976).

The festival, set to take place April 28 – May 1 in Hollywood, will also include tributes to the following screen legends:

· Director-writer Carl Reiner featuring a screening of Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) and an extended conversation

· Actor Elliott Gould featuring screenings of his Golden Globe nominated performance in M*A*S*H (1970), The Long Goodbye (1973) and a conversation in Club TCM

This year’s festival will include appearances by:

· Eva Marie Saint – on hand to introduce a screening of the political comedy The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (1966)

· Director John Singleton – presenting a 25th anniversary screening of his coming-of-age classic Boyz N The Hood (1991)

· Actor Stacy Keach – discussing John Huston’s gritty look at...

Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Museum of the Moving Image

Thanks to “Lonely Places: Film Noir and the American Landscape,” you can see Tomorrow Is Another Day and Frank Borzage‘s Moonrise this Saturday.

Sunset Boulevard, The Godfather, and The Godfather Part II screen this weekend.

Film Forum

Several titles will play in a retrospective celebrating production designer William Cameron Menzies,...

” Is this your wife? What a lovely throat!”

There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music and I’d go as far as saying there’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. And I’ll go even farther by saying that there’s nothing better than the 1922 silent spooker Nosferatu accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra which is an event that will be taking place Wednesday night, October 28th at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s Midtown Brewery & Biergarten (3229 Washington Ave, St. Louis 63103). Doors open at 6pm and the movie unspools after dark!

Admission Is Free !!!

I’ve seen Nosferatu with live music before and have even shown a 25-minute cut of the film at my old monthly Super-8 Movie Madness show with live keyboard accompaniment (by the talented Linda Gurney), but seeing the full-length version near...

“I’m just a regular fellow – step right up and call me ‘Speedy’ “

The Freshman (1925) and The Marathon (1919), both starring Harold Lloyd, will screen this Friday, September 5th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium

There’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by live music and I’d go as far as saying there’s nothing better than silent films accompanied by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. The group is a treasure and St. Louis is lucky to have them here. I’ve seen them perform with silent films several times, often at The St. Louis International Film Festival, and usually at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium and it’s always a fantastic time at the movies. Last summer the Rats and People played along to some Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton at the Sliff/Kids film fest, and this Friday night, September 5th, they will be accompanying...

Thanks to the work of the Harold Lloyd Entertainment and Janus Films, Lloyd’s 1925 comedic masterpiece The Freshman is the latest film to join the Criterion Collection in a fantastic new Blu-Ray. The college set, football-obsessed feature is one of Lloyd’s consistent works, showing off both his skills as a master of elongated gag set pieces as well as the character’s down to Earth pathos. Like the release of Safety Last!, Criterion has also included three recently restored shorts with new orchestral scores that demonstrate aspects of Lloyd’s comic forte from a slightly earlier period in his career.

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"The Great Beauty" (Criterion)

What's It About? A blast from the past sends man-about-town Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) reeling and reminiscing about his life and loves in Rome. The 65-year-old writer (of a sort) has had quite a life so far, but has he grown to take the richness of life and Rome for granted?

Why We're In: Even if you're not hip to Italian cinema and Sorrentino's influences, you'll still enjoy this Oscar-winning film.

Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week

"The King of Comedy" (30th Anniversary Edition)

What's It About? Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is desperate to become famous. Once he meets talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), he's sure his dreams of fame and fortune are coming true. All he has to do is convince Langford to have him on his show, and then Rupert will be the real king of comedy.

Cinema Retro is pleased to announce the premiere of a new column: Criterion Corner, which will highlight reviews and interviews pertaining to new Criterion video releases. For our debut column, we are honored to have Raymond Benson's exclusive interview with Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of legendary comedy star Harold Lloyd.

By Raymond Benson

On the advent of The Criterion Collection’s upcoming release of Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray and DVD, it’s high time that the silent film star gain some recognition from at least two generations that missed out on seeing this master comedian in action. Last year’s release of Safety Last! certainly got the ball rolling, and with Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, working as the trustee to his film library and head of Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc., the goal is to bring the pictures of the “third genius” (after Chaplin and Keaton) to a wider audience,...

Toronto's documentary film festival Hot Docs will pay tribute to Canadian filmmaker John Zaritsky in its 21st annual Focus On retrospective. This year's festival will be held from April 24 to May 4, and the full Zaritsky program will be announced in March.  With an international, wide-reaching career that spans almost 40 years, Zaritsky's films have received numerous awards and reached the screens of important international film festivals, including Sundance, Viff, Idfa, SXSW, and Tiff. Among his most celebrated films are "College Days, College Nights" (2004); "Broken Promises" (1989), and "Leave Them Laughing" (2010). Charlotte Cook, Director of Programming at Zoc Docs, praised Zaritsky, saying, "John is an iconic Canadian filmmaker whose career spans more than thirty years and his work is broad and rich. We are thrilled to be able to honor him at this year's festival." Collaborating with the Toronto Public Library, the festival will screen Zaritsky's "Romeo and Juliet in...

Romance is in the air just in time for Valentine's Day when Joanie Loves Chachi: The Complete Series arrives on DVD February 4th from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution. Starring Scott Baio and Erin Moran in their roles as young teenagers in love, the new collection marks the very first time the series becomes available on DVD.

Created by Garry Marshall (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley) and Lowell Ganz (Laverne & Shirley) Joanie Loves Chachi: The Complete Series includes all 17 episodes of the classic show in a three-disc collection.

Set in the 1960s, the spin-off to Happy Days follows Joanie Cunningham (Moran) and Chachi Arcola (Baio) as they move to Chicago and start a rock band. Often performing at Chachi's family's Italian restaurant, every episode of the beloved TV comedy is filled with romance and unforgettable musical numbers.

Joanie Loves Chachi: The Complete Series will be...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 25, 2014

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Harold Lloyd gets kittenish in The Freshman.

Harold Lloyd’s (Safety Last!) biggest box-office hit was the 1925 silent comedy classic The Freshman, featuring the befuddled everyman at his eager best as a new college student.

Though he dreams of being a big man on campus, the freshman’s careful plans inevitably go hilariously awry, be it on the football field or at the Fall Frolic. But he gets a climactic chance to prove his mettle—and impress the sweet girl he loves—in one of the most famous sports sequences ever filmed.

The popular, crowd-pleasing movie directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor is a gleeful showcase for Lloyd’s slapstick brilliance and incandescent charm, and it’s accompanied here by a new orchestral score by Carl Davis (Napoleon).

Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo of The Freshman includes...

This year's edition of the silent film festival featured Welles' previously-thought-lost Too Much Johnson amid a typically irreverent and varied selection

• Orson Welles's first professional film discovered in an Italian warehouse

• Review: Peter Bradshaw on Blancanieves

The first full day of the 32nd Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world's most prestigious silent-film festival, took place exactly 86 years after The Jazz Singer premiered in New York. There were no mournful faces in the town of Pordenone, Italy, where the Giornate is held, however. In this corner of the world, for one week only, it is not quite as if the talkies never arrived, but rather that they failed to stop the party. Silent cinema continues to reinvent itself, to surprise even its most protective guardians, and to multiply.

The opening gala night of the festival featured a recent film that paid tribute to European silent cinema, Pablo Berger's invigoratingly...

Duchess Catherine was so infatuated with a guy named Harry, she wasn't interested in Prince William when she first heard he would be attending the same university as her. The couple famously met at St Andrews University in Scotland and celebrated their first wedding anniversary in April but friends of the then Kate Middleton say she had her eye on a fellow student from her Marlborough College days, named Harry. A pal - who studied in Florence with Catherine - told Britain's Ok! magazine: 'The only time I even remember talking about William was when we found out he was coming to study in Florence, we would speculate about hanging out with him, but to be honest she never showed...

In 1925, the dawning of a new age in film that is right around the corner can already be seen. One of the largest steps is not only seeing film, but also hearing it. A big step towards this process was made when Western Electric and Warner Bros. decide to work together in order to make a system to make motion pictures with sound.

We also see the beginning of the use of foul language in the cinema. While the most infamous early use is most well-known as appearing in Gone With the Wind, The Big Parade beat their “damn” by fourteen years. The Big Parade, an epic silent war film used a title card that said, “March and sweat the whole damned day…”, marking one of the earliest uses of a curse word in an Us film.

Special effects in film even took a huge step forward. Not only were...

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A Thief Catcher (Keystone, 1914), featuring a previously unknown performance by silent comedy star Charlie Chaplin, will have its west coast re-premiere during the 46th annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood California over Labor Day Weekend, September 2-6, 2010

Chaplin is officially credited with appearing in thirty-five films during his year at Keystone in 1914, but he claimed in various interviews that he had also played bit roles as a cop and a barber while at the studio--but he did not name the films, and although there has been some speculation about the possibility of additional Chaplin-Keystone appearances, none has turned up until now. Film collector Paul Gierucki found a 16mm film print in a trunk at a Taylor, Michigan, antique store last year. "I could tell it was a Keystone comedy,...

"Micmacs," the new film from "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, may be set in modern day Paris, but stylistically it's a throwback to older movies -- particularly silent comedies and slapstick, with its elaborate, near wordless set pieces.

"Micmacs" provided the inspiration for this week's podcast, in which we talk about physical comedy, apparently both the highest and lowest form of comedy. We've picked out ten famous physical comedians, from Chaplin to Carrey, in order to highlight one of our favorites scenes from each.

Download: MP3, 1:09:56 minutes, 64.1 Mb

Subscribe to the podcast: [iTunes] [Xml]

This week's keyword game giveaway is a DVD of New Zealand horror-comedy "Black Sheep."

Our Favorite Physical Comedy Gags

Charles Chaplin roller skating blindfolded in "Modern Times" (1936):

Buster Keaton leaps onto the movie screen in "Sherlock Jr." (1924):

Harold Lloyd 's football heroics in "The Freshman" (1925:

Jerry Lewis on a runaway gurney in "The Disorderly Orderly...

Marking the 112th anniversary of Harold Lloyd's birthday, Sony Pictures Releasing is reissuing Lloyd's classic films, including Safety Last! and The Freshman. Beginning April 20, the films, which have been made available by the Harold Lloyd Trust, will premiere at Film Forum in New York. Bookings in additional cities -- including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago -- will follow. Many of the silent titles will feature newly recorded scores. "My grandfather holds an historic place in cinema history," said Suzanne Lloyd, the actor's granddaughter and president of Harold Lloyd Entertainment. "I'm pleased and proud that Sony has stepped forward to release these films so that a new generation can experience the sheer entertainment of Harold Lloyd on the big screen." Lloyd's film career spanned 34 years and 200 comedies. Among his most famous films are Grandma's Boy (1922), Safety Last! (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928) and Movie Crazy (1932).