News

170 fims from unknown sources released for free online.

The British Film Institute (BFI) has launched a collection of more than 170 films known as the Orphan Works.

Source: BFI National Archive

The Little Match Girl (1914), D. Percy Nash, part of the Orphan Works collection

Including features, shorts, corporate films, adverts, animation and documentary, the collection is comprised of works that have unknown or uncontactable rights-holders.

The BFI archive team has performed due diligence on the films by attempting to contact the copyright owners, and as such the organisation is now able to show them for free online.

The digitally-restored films will be available to view on BFI’s Youtube channel in the UK and internationally.

Actors featuring in the works include Christopher Lee, David Jason, Honor Blackman, John Le Mesurier, Lupino Lane, Madeleine Carroll, Norman Beaton, Peter Ustinov and Richard Burton. There are also interviews with footballing legends such as George Best,...

170 fims from unknown sources released for free online.

The British Film Institute (BFI) has launched a collection of more than 170 films known as the Orphan Works.

Source: BFI National Archive

The Little Match Girl (1914), D. Percy Nash, part of the Orphan Works collection

Including features, shorts, corporate films, adverts, animation and documentary, the collection is comprised of works that have unknown or uncontactable rights-holders.

The BFI archive team has performed due diligence on the films by attempting to contact the copyright owners, and as such the organisation is now able to show them for free online.

The digitally-restored films will be available to view on BFI’s Youtube channel in the UK and internationally.

Actors featuring in the works include Christopher Lee, David Jason, Honor Blackman, John Le Mesurier, Lupino Lane, Madeleine Carroll, Norman Beaton, Peter Ustinov and Richard Burton. There are also interviews with footballing legends such as George Best, Jack and Bobby Charlton...

Ida Lupino was the first woman to direct a classic noir film. In fact, she was the only woman working within the 1950s Hollywood studio system to direct a feature and she directed seven features and more than 100 TV episodes. She was the only woman to direct episodes of the original “The Twilight Zone” series, as well as the only director to have starred in the show.

She was born in London on Feb. 4, 1918, during a German zeppelin bombing. Her father’s forbears were traveling players and puppeteers in Renaissance Italy. Later generations migrated to England in the 17th century. Her father, Stanley Lupino, was a noted comedian, and her mother, Connie Emerald, was an actress who was also descended from a theatrical family. A cousin, Lupino Lane, was an internationally popular song-and-dance man.

As a child, she improvised and acted scenes with her younger sister, Rita, in a small...

'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...

Jean Kent: British film star and ‘Last of the Gainsborough Girls’ dead at 92 (photo: actress Jean Kent in ‘Madonna of the Seven Moons’) News outlets and tabloids — little difference these days — have been milking every little drop from the unexpected and violent death of The Fast and the Furious franchise actor Paul Walker, and his friend and business partner Roger Rodas this past Saturday, November 30, 2013. Unfortunately — and unsurprisingly — apart from a handful of British publications, the death of another film performer on that same day went mostly underreported. If you’re not "in" at this very moment, you may as well have never existed. Jean Kent, best known for her roles as scheming villainesses in British films of the 1940s and Gainsborough Pictures’ last surviving top star, died on November 30 at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, England. The previous day, she had suffered a fall at her...

Looking back at 2011 on what films moved and impressed us it becomes more and more clear—to me at least—that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, our end of year poll, now an annual tradition, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2011—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2011 to create a unique double feature. Many contributors chose their favorites of 2011, some picked out-of-the-way gems, others made some pretty strange connections—and some frankly just want to create a kerfuffle. All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2011 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Battle Beyond The Stars: 30th Anniversary Special Edition (1980)

Synopsis: Shad must scour the cosmos to recruit mercenaries from different planets and cultures, in order to save his peaceful home planet from the threat of the evil tyrant Sador, bent on dominating and enslaving the entire universe. Joining this “magnificent seven” of mercenaries are the deadly Gelt, carefree Cowboy, and the sexy Valkyrie Saint-Exmin. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary with producer Roger Corman and writer John Sayles; Audio commentary from production manager Gale Anne Hurd; The Man Who Would Be Shad featurette; Space Opera on a Shoestring featurette; Still gallery; Poster gallery; Theatrical trailer; Radio spot.

Brazil (1985)

Synopsis: In the future, a clerk at the all-powerful Ministry of Information sticks to his ideals and ends up crushed by the system in this half comedy, half...

<div style="text-align: justify;">Eighty years ago legendary British actor Lupino Lane created a (yet unbroken) record for a male actor playing 24 roles in .Only Me. (1929). And now Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra is all excited about the possibility of her entering the record books for doing 12 roles in forthcoming .What.s Your Raashee...I was aware about Sanjeev Kumar playing nine roles in .Naya Din Nayi Raat. and Kamal Haasan being seen 10 times over in .Dashavatharam.. However, even I got to know about Lupino Lane.s achievement very recently. Hats off to him to have done that eight decades back and that too in a silent film,. Priyanka told Ians.In Ashutosh Gowariker.s .What.s Your Raashee., she plays 12 different roles and the film has already been referred to the Guinness Book of World Records.While there have been quite a few double role performances by leading ladies in the past, there aren...