Thank You, Mr. Robertson
★ 7.5 · 1985 · 77m · Documentary
A glimpse of the pre-history of cinema starting with the projections of Etienne Gaspard Robert (also known as M. Robertson), who used magic lanterns and other optical illusions to develop the genre of the Gothic phantasmagoria in the late eighteenth century.
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Made in Hollywood
2011 · ★ 5
A breathtaking investigation into blockbusters, a film genre that enjoys worldwide success yet keeps its secret weapon well hidden backstage in Hollywood. The blockbuster appeals to a very wide audience, from 7 to 77 years and from Paris to Beijing. These films, which have boosted the film industry, started out with "Jaws" and "Star Wars" and are still prospering with Avatar or Alice in Wonderland. To succeed, the films must meet a few precise criteria, one of them being their cost - at 100 million dollars minimum. But in Hollywood, the films' ingredients are a well-kept secret; perhaps for fear of discovering that the studios' house rules are not as rosy as in certain fruitful happy endings? The pressure and the stakes are colossal. This fascinating documentary reviews the numerous professions affiliated with the blockbuster, via interviews with producers of the major studios (Walt Disney Studio, 20th Century Fox...)...
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Vivement Truffaut
1985 · ★ 7.5
A tribute to the late, great French director Francois Truffaut, this documentary was undoubtedly named after his last movie, Vivement Dimanche!, released in 1983. Included in this overview of Truffaut's contribution to filmmaking are clips from 14 of his movies arranged according to the themes he favored. These include childhood, literature, the cinema itself, romance, marriage, and death.
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Monsieur Truffaut Meets Mr. Hitchcock
1999 · ★ 6.8
When Francois Truffaut approached Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 with the idea of having a long conversation with him about his work and publishing this in book form, he didn't imagine that more than four years would pass before Le Cinéma selon Hitchcock finally appeared in 1966. Not only in France but all over the world, Truffaut's Hitchcock interview developed over the years into a standard bible of film literature. In 1983, three years after Hitchcock's death, Truffaut decided to expand his by now legendary book to include a concluding chapter and have it published as the "Edition définitive". This film describes the genesis of the "Hitchbook" and throws light on the strange friendship between two completely different men. The centrepieces are the extracts from the original sound recordings of the interview with the voices of Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, and Helen Scott – recordings which have never been heard in public before.
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The Latino List
2011 · ★ 7
Documentary film interviews leading Latinos on race, identity, and achievement.
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Naples Is a Battlefield
1944 · ★ 6.4
The capture of Naples, the first great European city to be liberated, revealed the magnitude of the tasks involved in re-creating the means of livelihood and the machinery of government in a devastated, starving and disease-ridden city.
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En film om och med Anders Petersen
2006
Anders Petersen is one of Europe's leading still photographers. A unique performer on the international photographic arena. He has published books like Café Lemitz, Boundary to Love, Prison, Nobody has seen anything and Close / Distance. The books and images have influenced and inspired a generation of Scandinavian photographers.
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Smash His Camera
2010 · ★ 6.9
A film centering on the life and work of Ron Galella that examines the nature and effect of paparazzi.
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1994
Introduction to an extensive training program for everyone professionally involved in the process of film conservation and film restoration. The realization of this training program was initiated and coordinated by ECIPAR (Bologna-Italy) and the Cineteca del Comune di Bologna. It was produced in co-operation with eleven European film archives and film laboratories and co-financed by the FILM project - FORCE program of the European Community.
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Primitive London
1965 · ★ 5.6
The sensational follow-up to "London in the Raw," "Primitive London" sets out to reflect society's decay through a sideshow spectacle of 1960s London depravity—and manages to outdo its predecessor. Here, we confront mods, rockers and beatniks at the Ace Café, cut some rug with obscure beat band The Zephyrs, smirk at flabby men in the sauna and goggle at sordid wife-swapping parties as we discover a pre-permissive Britain still trying to move on from the post-war depression of the 1950s.
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Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
2004 · ★ 7.1
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
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