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Moving Pictures (TV Series)
''Moving Pictures'' is a television series devoted to film that aired on BBC 2 from 1990 to 1996. It was presented by American-born Howard Schuman, screenwriter of ''Rock Follies'' and '' Selling Hitler''. Each program was composed of several short films on different cinematic subjects and not necessarily on current releases. Although it never achieved high ratings, ''Moving Pictures'' was frequently used to teach film studies. Interviewed on the set of ''Pulp Fiction'', Quentin Tarantino told John Travolta it was the best show about movies on television. Director Mike Figgis credited a film about himself with salvaging his career after it showed the other side of the story of the making of his film '' Mr. Jones''. The series finished in 1996, largely due to the cost of paying for film clips, but excerpts from it have since appeared as supplementary material on the Criterion Collection editions of ''Chungking Express'' (1994) and '' Straw Dogs'' (1971) include ''Moving Pictures'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motion Pictures
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since the 1930s, synchronized with sound and (less commonly) other sensory stimulations. Etymology and alternative terms The name "film" originally referred to the thin layer of photochemical emulsion on the celluloid strip that used to be the actual medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion-picture, including "picture", "picture show", "moving picture", "photoplay", and "flick". The most common term in the United States is "movie", while in Europe, "film" is preferred. Archaic terms include "animated pictures" and "animated photography". "Flick" is, in general a slang term, first recorded in 1926. It originates in the verb flicker, owing to the flickering appearance of early films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributor Janus Films, Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and documentary content about the films and filmmakers. Criterion most notably pioneered the use of commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,200 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via The Criterion Channel, an online streaming service that the company operates. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1990 British Television Series Debuts
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the 15th pope. Births Valerian Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Two Original Programming
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current state with its current name on New Year's Day 1927. The oldest and largest local and global broadcaster by stature and by number of employees, the BBC employs over 21,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 17,200 are in public-sector broadcasting. The BBC was established under a Royal charter#United Kingdom, royal charter, and operates under an agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual Television licensing in the United Kingdom, television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts or to use the BBC's streaming service, BBC iPlayer, iPla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Genome Project
The BBC Genome Project is an online searchable database of programme listings initially based upon the contents of the ''Radio Times'' from the first issue in 1923 to 2009. Television listings from post-2009 can be accessed via the BBC Programmes site. History Prior BBC Genome is not the BBC's first online searchable database. In April 2006, they gave the public access to Infax – their only electronic programme database at the time. It contained around 900,000 entries but not every programme ever broadcast, and it ceased operation in December 2007. The front page of the website is still available to see via the Internet Archive. After Infax ceased, a message on the website said that it would be incorporating in the information into individual programme pages. In 2012, Infax was replaced by the database Fabric but this is only for internal use within the BBC. ''Radio Times'' In December 2012, the BBC completed a digitisation exercise, scanning the listings from ''Radio Times'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Cuts
''Short Cuts'' is a 1993 American comedy-drama film, directed by Robert Altman. Filmed from a screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt, it is inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver. The film is set in Los Angeles, in contrast to the original Pacific Northwest backdrop of Carver's stories. ''Short Cuts'' traces the actions of 22 principal characters, both in parallel and at occasional loose points of connection. The film features an ensemble cast including Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Fred Ward, Anne Archer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Chris Penn, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand, Lori Singer, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, actress and singer Annie Ross, and musicians Huey Lewis, Lyle Lovett, and Tom Waits. Plot The film begins with a fleet of helicopters spraying for medflies, which brings various characters together along the flight path. Dr. Ralph Wyman and his wife, Marian, meet Stuart Kane, an u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Velvet (film)
''Blue Velvet'' is a 1986 American neo-noir mystery thriller motion picture written and directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir, the film stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, and is named after the 1951 song of the same name. The movie follows a college student who returns to his hometown and discovers a severed human ear in a field, which leads him to uncover a criminal conspiracy involving a troubled nightclub singer. The screenplay of ''Blue Velvet'' had been passed around multiple times in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with several major studios declining it because of its strong sexual and violent content. After the failure of his 1984 film ''Dune'', Lynch made attempts at developing a more "personal story", somewhat characteristic of the surrealist style displayed in his first film, '' Eraserhead'' (1977). The independent studio De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, owned at the time by Italian produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Night Of The Hunter (film)
''The Night of the Hunter'' is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. The screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 The Night of the Hunter (novel), novel of the same name by Davis Grubb. The plot is about Preacher Harry Powell (Mitchum), a serial killer who poses as a preacher and pursues two children in an attempt to get his hands on $10,000 of stolen cash hidden by their late father. The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murder of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The film's lyrical and Expressionism, expressionistic style, borrowing techniques from silent film, sets it apart from other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has influenced such later directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Robert Altman, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers and Guillermo del Toro. ''The Night of the Hunter'' pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic '' The Wild Bunch'' received two Academy Award nominations and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list. His films employed a visually innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence as well as a revisionist approach to the Western genre. Peckinpah's films deal with the conflict between values and ideals, as well as the corruption and violence in human society. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable but are forced to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality. He was given the nickname "Bloody Sam" owing to the violence in his films. Peckinpah's combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. The production of many of his films included battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation and ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wong Kar-Wai
Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography involving bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure of Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cinema, Wong is considered a contemporary ''auteur'' and ranked third on ''Sight and Sound''s 2002 poll of the greatest filmmakers of the previous 25 years. His films frequently appear on best-of lists domestically and internationally. Born in Shanghai, Wong emigrated to Hong Kong as a child with his family. He began a career as a screenwriter for soap operas before transitioning to directing with his debut, the crime drama ''As Tears Go By (film), As Tears Go By'' (1988). While ''As Tears Go By'' was fairly successful in Hong Kong, Wong moved away from the contemporary trend of Crime film, crime and Action film, action movies to embark on more personal filmmaking styles. ''Days of Being Wild'' (1990), his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straw Dogs (1971 Film)
''Straw Dogs'' is a 1971 psychological thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. The screenplay, by Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman, is based on Gordon M. Williams's 1969 novel, '' The Siege of Trencher's Farm''. The film's title is derived from a discussion in the ''Tao Te Ching'' that likens people to the ancient Chinese ceremonial straw dog, being of ceremonial worth, but afterwards discarded with indifference. The film is noted for its violent concluding sequences and two complicated rape scenes, which were censored by numerous film rating boards. Released theatrically the same year as '' A Clockwork Orange'', '' The French Connection'' and ''Dirty Harry'', the film sparked heated controversy over a perceived increase of violence in films generally. The film premiered in the U.K. in November 1971. Although controversial at the time, ''Straw Dogs'' is considered by some critics to be one of Peckinpah's greatest films, and was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chungking Express
''Chungking Express'' is a 1994 Hong Kong anthology crime dramedy film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film consists of two stories told in sequence, each about a lovesick Hong Kong policeman mulling over his relationship with a woman. The first story stars Takeshi Kaneshiro as a cop obsessed by his breakup with a woman named May and his encounter with a mysterious drug smuggler (Brigitte Lin). The second stars Tony Leung as a police officer roused from his gloom over the loss of his flight attendant girlfriend (Valerie Chow) by the attentions of a quirky snack bar worker (Faye Wong). " Chungking" in the title refers to Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, a place with a reputation as Hong Kong's dark underbelly, rife with crime, sex, and drugs. "Express" refers to the food stand Midnight Express in Lan Kwai Fong, an area in Central, Hong Kong. The film premiered in Hong Kong on 14 July 1994 and received critical acclaim, especially for its direction, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
