2012 Additions to the National Film Registry

Posted on December 21, 2012 at 11:42 am

Each year, the Library of Congress announces the names of films added to the National Film Registry — an assortment that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 600. New additions include the delightful comedy “Born Yesterday,” featuring Judy Holliday’s Academy Award-winning performance; and Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” starring Audrey Hepburn. Among the documentaries named to the registry are “The Times of Harvey Milk,” a revealing portrait of San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official; “One Survivor Remembers,” an Academy Award-winning documentary short about Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein; and Ellen Bruno’s documentary about the struggle of the Cambodian people to rebuild in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s killing fields. The creative diversity of American filmmakers is evident in the selections of independent and experimental films, which include Nathaniel Dorsky’s “Hours for Jerome,” Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” and the Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Test film of 1922. Among the cinema firsts are “They Call It Pro Football,” which has been described as the “Citizen Kane” of sports movies; and the 1914 version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which features the first black actor to star in a feature-length American film. The actor Sam Lucas made theatrical history when he also appeared in the lead role in the stage production of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1878. You can nominate your own candidates for next year’s list. This year’s additions:

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54muV-xIhIU

The Augustas (1930s-1950s)

Born Yesterday (1950)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

A Christmas Story (1983)

The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82)

The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s)

Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922)

A League of Their Own (1992)

The Matrix (1999)

The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939)

One Survivor Remembers (1995)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dqo9poiA2Y

Parable (1964)

Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990)

Slacker (1991)

Sons of the Desert (1933)

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

They Call It Pro Football (1967)

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1914)

The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England (1914)

My Favorite Versions of “A Christmas Carol”

Posted on December 19, 2012 at 8:00 am

My favorite Christmas story is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and I enjoy as many versions as possible every year. I love it in just about any of its movie incarnations. “Bah, humbugs” have been muttered by Scrooges played by top-notch dramatic actors like George C. Scott and Albert Finney, former Miss America Vanessa Williams, former Fonzie Henry Winkler, former Ace Ventura Jim Carrey, and former “Saturday Night Live” star Bill Murray. I love them all. I’ve already listened to the Tim Curry and Jim Dale audio versions available on Audible.com, both delightful. And I have the book, of course, with wonderful illustrations by Ronald Searle.

Here are my very favorite versions on film and I try to watch each of them every year.

5. “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” Who better to play Scrooge than his namesake Scrooge McDuck? And who better for the part of the unquenchable Bob Cratchit than Mickey Mouse? This compilation DVD includes other Christmas goodies “The Small One” and “Pluto’s Christmas Tree.”

4. “The Muppet Christmas Carol” has the distinguished actor Michael Caine as Scrooge and the equally distinguished Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit. Special mention of A Sesame Street Christmas Carol as well.

3. “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” The voice talent is outstanding, with Broadway star Jack Cassidy (father of teen idols David and Shaun) as Bob Cratchit and of course Jim Backus as Mr. Magoo, in this version an actor playing the part of Scrooge. The tuneful songs were written by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne, who later went on to write “Funny Girl.” (The legend is that their song “People” was originally written for this movie.)

2. “A Christmas Carol” This MGM classic features the top stars of the 1930’s. Watch for future “Lassie” star June Lockhart as one of the Cratchit children — her real-life father Gene Lockhart played Bob. (He also appears in another Christmas classic, as the judge inMiracle on 34th Street.) Reginald Owen plays Scrooge and this one has my favorite Fred, Barry MacKay. I love Dickens’ description of Fred’s laugh: “If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge’s nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me, and I’ll cultivate his acquaintance.”

1. “A Christmas Carol” This is the all-time best, with the inimitable Alistair Sim as Scrooge. There has never been a more embittered miser or a more jubilent Christmas morning rebirth. When he orders that turkey for the Cratchits and walks into his nephew’s celebration at the end, everything Dickens hoped for from his story is brought to life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWdJ1EXf5zo

Shalom Sesame DVD Club

Posted on December 5, 2012 at 8:00 am

The popular Shalom Sesame DVD series has announced a Shalom Sesame DVD Club. Grover the Muppet and Anneliese van der Pol (That’s So Raven, Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast) travel to Israel to meet new people and learn new things in this 12-part DVD series co-produced by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and Israel ’s Channel HOP! Each 30-minute, live-action and animated DVD focuses on storylines drawn from Jewish cultural traditions, highlighting lessons on Hebrew letters and words, unique sites in Israel , and Jewish values. Through Sesame Street characters, celebrities and stories, viewers learn about Jewish traditions, culture and holidays. Guest appearances by celebrity talent include Debra Messing, Achinoam Nini, Mira Awad, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christina Applegate and Greg Kinnear.

The club is free and members can opt for purchasing the entire DVD series or single titles for a 15% discount , in a single shipment or on a monthly basis.

Shalom Sesame’s “Chanukah the Missing Menorah” episode on PBS this December. The 12 DVDs in the series are: “Welcome to Israel,” “Chanukah: The Missing Menorah,” Shabbat Shalom, Grover!,” “Grover Plants a Tree,” “Mitzvah on the Street,” “Be Happy, It’s Purim!,” “It’s Passover, Grover!,” “Grover Learns Hebrew,” “Countdown to Shavuot,” “The Sticky Shofar,” “Monsters in the Sukkah,” and “Adventures in Israel.” Each Shalom Sesame DVD includes over 20 minutes of bonus extras including trailers, sneak peeks of all titles, Grover’s Video Player (music videos), sing-alongs and Karaoke of favorite tunes like “Aleph Bet Song,” “Rosh Hashanah Hannah” (a spoof of Hannah Montana) and the famous “Rubber Duckie” song (in Hebrew) among others. A highlight of Grover’s Video Player on Adventures in Israel is “There Must Be Another Way” by Achinoam Nini, Mira Awad and Shalom Sesame friends – the song that represented Israel in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Follow Shalom Sesame on YouTube and Facebook and watch “Chanukah: The Missing Menorah” on your local PBS station.

New From Veggie Tales: The League of Incredible Vegetables

Posted on October 27, 2012 at 8:00 am

The Veggie Tales folks at Big Idea Entertainment have a new DVD just in time for Halloween, to help kids who might have a hard time telling the difference between fun scary and scary scary. It’s called The League of Incredible Vegetables and it’s the first superhero-themed Veggie Tales story. Bad guy Dr. Flurry wants to freeze the town — with fear! That’s too much for just one superhero to handle, so LarryBoy, Thingamabob (Bob the Tomato), S-Cape (Mr. Lunt), Vogue (Petunia Rhubarb) and Ricochet (Junior Asparagus) have to work together and learn to understand and overcome their own fears in order to save the day. No one does silly stories with real lessons better than the Veggies. This one is a lot of fun and a good way to start some conversations about fear, faith, and cooperation. For a free craft and coloring sheet to go with the DVD, send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Veggies in the subject line.

Halloween Favorites from The Movie Mom!

Posted on October 22, 2012 at 8:00 am