classics Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The world of movie marketing certainly has changed over the years, and some of the greatest films to ever come out of Hollywood never got the chance to have high powered marketing teams behind them creating multi-million dollar campaigns. But when it comes to poster art, classic artists like Saul Bass or Bob Peak have yet to be matched. Now, thanks to Turner Classic Movies, we've got a perfect blend of the old and the new in their set of teaser posters for their Summer Under the Stars programming line-up (you can download the full schedule on the TCM site) and the results are in a word: fan-freaking-tastic.

There are 12 posters in total, and they include some breathtaking new images for movies like To Catch a Thief, The Big Heat, The Magnificent Seven, and Dr. Strangelove. TCM has provided a heck of a programming month for fans of classic movies, and if you have never seen some of these films, now is your chance. Since I'm a bit of geek when it comes to these things, I immediately began fantasizing about buying a reproduction to hang in my living room -- but I'm not that lucky, because it looks like these posters aren't for sale and, instead, I will just have to make do with downloading the desktop wallpapers.

TCM's Summer Under the Stars will start in August with the films of Henry Fonda, and will run for the entire month. Check out some of our favorite classic movie teaser posters below, and see if you can guess the film.

Over at The Guardian, blogger Ronald Bergan has written an incredibly snobby article called "Dumb Hollywood is Forever In Debt to Europe." The purpose of the piece seems to be to anger readers -- I assure you it's no accident that he published an article trashing American film on Independence Day. Bergan starts by taking aim at The Guardian's recent list of 1,000 Films to See Before You Die. He says, presumably while wearing a beret and enjoying a snifter of brandy: "A list that includes Dumb and Dumber and not Boudu Saved from Drowning renders itself worthless." He adds, presumably while cleaning his monocle with his ascot: "looking at the American Film Institute's recent list of Top 100 American Films made me think how much richer in masterpieces would be a similar list of non-American films." Please go and read the tremendously one-sided, reductive, dismissive article, which closes: "I suggest that American cinema -- with exceptions that prove the rule -- still lags behind the times. For anyone with an interest in films that explore the cinematic language and who sees film as a radical, contemporary art form on a par with the other arts, American cinema holds little interest."

Does Bergan think any American filmmakers are worthwhile? Yes -- three of them. "The only American-born film directors that truly belong in the Film Pantheon are John Ford, Howard Hawks and Orson Welles." Oh, and according to Bergan, Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Douglas Sirk, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock don't count, because they're "emigres" who "brought what they had learnt in Europe with them to America." Does he respect any living American directors? Not a one: "By the highest standards of cinema, American films fall short. There are no living American directors who can compete in innovation and depth with the likes of Theo Angelopoulos, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Marie Straub, Bela Tarr, Pedro Costa, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Abbas Kiarostami, Manoel de Oliveira, Alexander Sokurov, Jia Zhang Ke or Tsai Ming-liang."

Now, I majored in film in college, and I love foreign cinema, but I'm fairly certain he made a couple of those names up. David Lynch? The Coen Brothers? Stanley Kubrick? Spike Lee? Steven Spielberg? None of these guys impress him? Bergan's failure to even mention Martin Scorsese is particularly inexcusable. By the way, there's the author's photograph in the upper right corner. Do you really think that dude's even seen Dumb and Dumber? Going off of that mug shot, I'd imagine Bergan also doesn't enjoy ice cream, sunsets, and the laughter of children.

Well, I know what I'll be doing tonight! The American Film Institute is announcing its new "100 Years...100 Movies" list this evening, and as much as I tend to disagree with their annual lists, I can't wait. The special airs at 8PM on CBS, and will be hosted by...you guessed it, Morgan Freeman. Yes, they already did this list once before, in 1998. Tonight's special marks the 10th anniversary, and there was an entirely new vote conducted this time out. The previous list caused quite a controversy because of what it included (British films on an American list?) and what it left off, specifically films by black or female directors (the snub of Do the Right Thing still stings). 1998's top ten were as follows: 10) Singin' in the Rain, 9) Schindler's List, 8) On the Waterfront, 7) The Graduate, 6) The Wizard of Oz, 5) Lawrence of Arabia, 4) Gone with the Wind, 3) The Godfather, 2) Casablanca, 1) Citizen Kane. It's hard to imagine tonight's top ten list will change drastically, although I'd expect Schindler's List to drop a few spots.

As limited in scope as these lists can be, I eagerly look forward to every one. I can recall excitedly printing out the 1998 list and seeking out the few I hadn't seen. The lil' film fans of today need this sort of thing to know where to start with an appreciation of American film. The AFI intends to "refresh" the list once a decade -- 43 newer movies are in contention this time that weren't last time around, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Finding Nemo, L.A. Confidential, Fight Club, Spider-Man 2, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Brokeback Mountain, Chicago (Oh please), Crash (Oh please!), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Oh, puh-leeeeease!!!). Over at AFI.com, you can watch videos of stars talking about their favorite movies, as well as download a ballot for yourself, select your favorite 100, and see how well you match up tonight.

While working the Rome Film Festival for his film The Departed, Martin Scorsese has announced a project with festival organizers to re-store and preserve 100 Italian cinema classics. First on the block is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West starring Henry Fonda and Jason Robards. Leone's classic western has been hanging by a thread for a while now; few prints exist and those that do are in terrible condition.

Scorsese has always been one of the loudest supporters of maintaining and preserving classic films. At a festival event, Scorsese spoke to journalists about the project: "You can find that color (deterioration) can happen as quickly as within six years ... Millions of dollars goes into this industry and nobody thought about preserving the film. It's incredible."

So far, Scorsese and the National Film Preservation Foundation have convinced Sony, Warner Bros., and other major studios to start preserving their collections. The Rome Film Festival is promising to help finance the project and do a few films per year (with no word yet on how much this might actually cost). Film restoration is an incredibly expensive and time consuming endeavor but it's worth it when you think of all the amazing films that could have been lost. Being the classic movie junkie that I am, I'm thrilled that someone is leading the charge, and what better person than Martin Scorsese -- a God to film nerds everywhere.

Which movies would you like to see saved for posterity?

Related Scorsese:

Scorsese is Ready for a Break

Getting Up Close and Personal With Scorsese

A new teaser for The Omen remake is now online and, coincidentally, the film comes out on 6.6.06. One can only imagine the studio meeting in which this brilliant marketing strategy was born. I mean, so what if June 6th is a Tuesday - chances like this only come around every 100 years.

The actual name of the film is The Omen 666, and it is a remake of the 1976 classic starring Gregory Peck. Here, Liev Schreiber takes over for Peck in the role of Robert Thorn, an American official who realizes that his son is either the devil or just a really weird kid. The teaser doesn't offer us much except for a boy on a swing dressed in a red suit, but towards the end, when he stares at the camera, you can tell we're in for some nastiness.

Although I'm not a fan of remakes, at this point I've come to accept them and moved on. I am interested to see how they handle some of the death scenes, in particular the nanny hanging and the priest impaling. However, I'm a bit worried about Julia Stiles pulling off the role of ambassador's wife. Isn't she still in her early 20's?