Links to interesting movie sites
Readers of Movies-seivoM might like to visit some of the other eccentric, personal, and vaguely obsessive movie sites that abound on the Web. I am indebted to the following sites for information, ideas, pictures, and/or a good time:
www.vitaphone.org
A "reference site for collectors and historians" celebrating
"Movies, Music, and Popular Culture of the Jazz Age, 1925-1935."
A massive amount of information has been collected here, including exhaustive
lists of silent and sound cartoons from major studios, as well as data
on shorts, features, posters, personalities, etc. Also a list of English
translations of works written in Late Antiquity.
www.dvdtoons.com
News, reviews, discussions, Q&As, interviews—everything you want
to know about animated material available on DVD.
www.silent-movies.com
Port of entry to sites about Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon,
William Desmond Taylor, and others. Currently its most valuable feature
is a complete Web version of a 1923 publication called "The Blue
Book of the Screen," with hundreds of richly-captioned photos of
Hollywood, studios, stars, directors, writers and producers.
http://members.aol.com/MG4273
Michael E. Grost's list are useful and his essays on directors, genres,
and issues in criticism are really interesting. I especially recommend
his chart showing the History of the Semi-Documentary Film, which provides
not only name, director, and year of release, but also the law enforcement
"Team" involved (FBI, NYPD, CDC, etc.), the "Technology"
featured (radio, heliograph, Hollerith machine, etc.), and the location
of the "Finale" (LA sewers, Boulder Dam, Williamsburg Bridge,
etc.).
www.bighousefilm.com
A schedule of screenings at Canberra's Big House Film Society (devoted
to "Putting criminals where they belong—on the Silver Screen!"),
with insightful appreciative essays for those of us who can't attend.
A great resource for film noir fans.
www.csse.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent
A very good collection of links related to silent film screenings, interest
groups, preservation, and other resources. Especially notable for its
original "Silent Star of the Month" essays, well-researched
and well-written. Forever in my affections for unearthing this quotation
from Augusts Lumiere: "Our invention can be exploited for a certain
time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from that, it has no commercial
future whatsoever."
www.silentera.com
Another good source for information and news about silent film events
and releases. Its depressing list of "films considered lost"
is preceded by a mood-brightening update on films previously considered
lost that have been found and restored.
http://gregbrian.tripod.com/hidden/hid04b.html
One of my favorite web sites! This guy has put together a list of hidden
gags in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons—in-jokes, caricatures,
appearances by animators, and risqué messages worked into the background.
It's hilarious.
www.wtv-zone.com/lumina/judy/main.html
This is the Judy Holliday Resource Center. Some day you may need to know
42 trivia facts about Judy Holliday, or read 67 quotes from her, or scan
all 13 FBI documents about her, or refer to the 365-event chronology of
her life and career.
http://disneyshorts.org/index.html
Here is information about "all of the short subjects Disney made
between the years 1922 to the present." An incredible amount of information:
credits, synopses, sources, inside jokes, bloopers, cut scenes, and availability
on video and DVD. Personal observations and evaluations as well. You can
find sketches, storyboard drawings, and occasionally a video clip.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com
"An online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion
of cinema." Auteurist in approach, catholic in its tastes. Kind of
arty, but some of the essays about directors are first-rate. A good collection
of links to other serious film sites.
copyright ©2005 Barbara Bernstein
