D. W. Griffith's The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Image via WikipediaThe Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent film co-written (with Frank E. Woods), co-produced (with Harry Aitken), and directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It was originally released on February 8, 1915. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission.

The film chronicles the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.

According to Variety, The Birth of a Nation, which was filmed on a budget of an estimated $110,000, is the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, with earnings of approximately $10 million and has been praised for its technical innovations.

However, the film was, and remains, highly controversial due to its portrayal of African American men (played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (whose original founding is dramatized) as a heroic force. There were widespread protests against The Birth of a Nation, and it was banned in several cities. The outcry of racism was so great that D.W. Griffith was inspired to produce Intolerance the following year.

 According to FilmSite.org:


Its pioneering technical work, often the work of Griffith's under-rated cameraman Billy Bitzer, includes many techniques that are now standard features of films, but first used in this film. Griffith brought all of his experience and techniques to this film from his earliest short films at Biograph, including the following:

• the use of ornate title cards
• special use of subtitles graphically verbalizing imagery
• its own original musical score written for an orchestra
• the introduction of night photography (using magnesium flares)
• the use of outdoor natural landscapes as backgrounds
• the definitive usage of the still-shot
• elaborate costuming to achieve historical authenticity and accuracy
• many scenes innovatively filmed from many different and multiple angles
• the technique of the camera "iris" effect (expanding or contracting circular masks to either reveal and open up a scene, or close down and conceal a part of an image)
• the use of parallel action and editing in a sequence (Gus' attempted rape of Flora, and the KKK rescues of Elsie from Lynch and of Ben's sister Margaret)
• extensive use of color tinting for dramatic or psychological effect in sequences
• moving, traveling or "panning" camera tracking shots
• the effective use of total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions
• beautifully crafted, intimate family exchanges
• the use of vignettes seen in "balloons" or "iris-shots" in one portion of a darkened screen
• the use of fade-outs and cameo-profiles (a medium closeup in front of a blurry background)
• the use of lap dissolves to blend or switch from one image to another
• high-angle shots and the abundant use of panoramic long shots
• the dramatization of history in a moving story - an example of an early spectacle or epic film with historical costuming and many historical references (e.g., Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs)
• impressive, splendidly-staged battle scenes with hundreds of extras (made to appear as thousands)
• extensive cross-cutting between two scenes to create a montage-effect and generate excitement and suspense (e.g., the scene of the gathering of the Klan)
• expert story-telling, with the cumulative building of the film to a dramatic climax

The film looks remarkably genuine and authentic, almost of documentary quality (like Brady's Civil War photographs), vividly reconstructing a momentous time period in history - and it was made only 50 years after the end of the Civil War.

Related articles

• TCM to Commemorate 150th Anniversary of the Civil War with Month-Long Programming Spotlight in April (tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com)

In Memorium | Elizabeth Taylor February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011

Though its impossible to appropriately eulogize Elizabeth Taylor in a blog post, I will take the time just to express my sincere love for my favorite movie star. From as early as I can remember she was the my ideal woman. I rated her beauty, talent and personality above every other actress in black-in-white or technicolor, as a child star up til her the last days of her golden years. Not to mention my admiration for her life long AIDS philanthropy and respect for her preserverance through life long health problems and chronic pain. Perhaps because she and I shared the same zodiac sign, the same birthday in February,and same favorite color of purple that I always felt a special connection for this sensitive fellow Piscean. She was the only actress that I practiced idolatry for.

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Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra was my favorite fantasy movie role

As I grew into womanhood I tried to capture some of her Cleopatran regality by dyeing my hair blue black. During my career as a make up artist, I plastered my lids with color, defined my eyes with black kohl liner, arched and penciled my naturally thick black brows to match hers.

During the eighties I added her frosty streaks, duplicated her layered haircut and teased my lacquered tresses into Elizabethan spikes. I imitated her bejeweled flashy fashion. I perfumed with her "Passion" fragrance. She also became my role model for business as her "White Diamonds" was always the top selling fragrance during my career in department store cosmetics. At her death Taylor left an estate estimated at $600 million to $1 billion; beyond the $150 million in jewelry, she owned $130 million in real estate. Taylor was a pioneer in marketing a celebrity merchandise brand, and despite her years as an actress, most of Taylor's wealth came from her business ventures.

Image via WikipediaAs my age caught up with hers and I developed my own chronic pain conditions, I came to respect her life long struggle with health problems. Like everyone else she had imperfections. She made mistakes. She sinned. What makes her admirable is how she well she lived despite her pain, tragedy, problems and mistakes. She didn't let the negatives stop her. She kept on working, and giving and living life to the fullest. Right til the very end! Like Elizabeth, I hope I my epitaph will be a life well lived and well loved.

Related articles

• Elizabeth Taylor Remembered (fashionjrn.wordpress.com)
• Elizabeth Taylor's Jewelry To Be Auctioned By Christie's (huffingtonpost.com)
• Kim Kardashian Pays Homage To Elizabeth Taylor In Cleopatra-Themed Shoot With Harper's Bazaar (popcrunch.com)
• How Love Helps Chronic Pain (fyiliving.com)
• Turner Classic Movies Plans Elizabeth Taylor Tribute in April, Part of DISH Programming (dishtvblog.com)
• Naked Elizabeth Taylor picture: Was that actually her? (dailymail.co.uk)

Mike Myers Austin Powers scene taken from Peter Sellers After the Fox

After the Fox  is a 1966 Italian comedy film starring Peter Sellers and directed by Vittorio De Sica. Sellers plays Aldo Vanucci, also known as The Fox, a master criminal with a talent for disguise who accepts the contract for smuggling the gold with Okra (Akim Tamiroff) the mastermind of the heist, Two policemen are constantly on his trail and Aldo has to use many disguises and tricks to throw them off his trail. The scene in the film where Aldo speaks to Okra through his voluptuous accomplice Maria Grazia Buccella inspired a similar scene in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), in which star Mike Myers as Austin Powers talks to Foxxy Cleopatra through the Nathan Lane character.

Peter Sellers The Bobo - The Blue Matador inspires Big Fat Liar

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The Bobo is a 1967 British comedy film starring Peter Sellers and co-starring his then-wife Britt Ekland. Based on a 1959 novel "Olimpia" by Burt Cole, aka Thomas Dixon, Sellers is featured as the would-be Spanish singing matador, Juan Bautista.
A theater manager offers to give him a big break if he seduces the beautiful Olympia (Ekland) and spends an hour in her apartment with the lights off. In the end Sellers becomes known as the "Blue Matador" after the woman has him dyed blue in act of revenge.

A similar famous scene takes place Big Fat Liar, a 2002 American teen comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, starring Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, and Amanda Bynes. Teenagers, Muniz and Bynes add blue and orange dye to Giamatti's swimming pool and shampoo, giving him blue skin and orange hair.

Ignoring Chest Pains for TCM Metropolis Premiere Almost Cost My Life

I am posting on my blog, because a 140 character tweet just couldn't do justice for the explanation for why I suddenly stopped my maniacal tweeting for TCM the 2 months. November 8th was a typical lazy Sunday except I was full of anticipation like every other true movie enthusiast for the premier of the 2010 renovation of Metropolis at 10pm ON TCM that night. An otherwise typical Sunday was eventually interrupted by a nagging pain whenever I took deep breaths. For most of the morning I blamed this mild irritation on the new core exercises my physical therapist got me started on Friday. By night fall this minor irritation had developed into panting to avoid the growing pain I felt with each full breath. After some conversation with my lupus Facebook friends, the self diagnosis became pleurisy. Inflammation of the sac enclosing the lung is a common condition for lupus patients. They all said go to ER immediately. My best friend was all ready to take me. BUT I ignored my lupus Facebook friends advice and told my best friend it wasn't too bad yet. She could pick me up before work in the morning, drop me off at the ER, I would get a round of steroids and be done by the time she got off work. I did not disclose to anyone that I just really really didn't want to miss the TCM television premiere of the Kino 2010 restored, complete Metropolis including lost 25 minutes that has not been seen for 83 years. Being the classic movie nerd that I am, not only did I enjoy TCM's broadcast. Afterward, I simultaneously viewed the Full German Director's cut side by side with the English Titled 2001 renovation comparing frame by frame. I was up til dawn when my friend picked me up to go to ER. A 15 year lupus veteran, having had pleurisy lots of times, I felt absolutely no anxiety. They did EKG immediately. In my previous experience that was a routine precaution with any chest discomfort. While one nurse worked me over for an IV, the other whispered something about the EKG and they quickly fled the room and returned with a team of doctors including a cardiologist with a pen and papers to sign for a heart catherization to check for blockage. Whoa, wait a minute. This is not in the script! Whose directing this scene? CUT!!! I wanted to wait for my best friend. But they warned me every second could be lethal to my heart tissue. They also warned if blockage found they would immediately do the surgery to correct it. It didn't take long for them to inform me no blockage was found. I felt relieved and confident the director would get back to MY SCRIPT with the pleurisy diagnosis. The nurse spent quite some time putting pressure on my cath incision trying to stop the bleeding.(FORESHADOWING) My best friend and pastor met me in my ICU room. With my own anxieties gone I was trying to relieve her fears. She had received a message from hospital saying I had a heart attack! Oh nothing of the sort, I said. I feel fine. Its just hurts when I breath deeply. I have had much worse pain with pleurisy, so it couldn't be that bad. I began to chit chat with the pastor about the some work I'd done for church website. SCRIPT CHANGE: Suddenly severe nausea hit me and although I was lying securely flat against pillows I felt as if I was falling very very fast. Amidst the casual conversation that continued in the scene in front of me, I became the 4TH WALL. I tried to yell out, "I'm sick! I'm falling! Raise me up!" A gray tunnel enclosed my view as I felt myself rapidly floating backwards away from the scene like a character in a Spike Lee flick. It was curtains for me!

I awoke. The scene was a darkened hospital room. In the chair in the corner I saw a figure wrapped in a blanket. It was my son. I must be dreaming because he's 500 miles away at college. They probably gave me some IV dilaudid with the steroids. That always knocks out my memory and gives me sweet dreams. I thought it was late Monday night. I must have slept all day. The next time I awoke my son was smiling right in my face teasing me, "So you decided to join us?" He was really there holding my hand. This scene was real.

It was the next morning before I realized a week had past. I had missed the climax in the plot of a medical drama that starred me. I was told I was at a different hospital ICU. I found out that I had not fainted. I stopped breathing. It was CODE BLUE! My heart stopped beating. Unable to be resuscitated I was put on life support and flown by helicopter from my home town to the nearest major medical center for emergency cardiac surgery and had been on life support until God's grace brought me out. A real tear jerking happy ending. Miracles don't just happen in the MOVIES.

In summary, my heart stopped as a result of cardiac tamponade, which is caused by a large or uncontrolled pericardial effusion, i.e. the buildup of fluid inside the pericardium. This commonly occurs as a result of chest trauma, but may have other causes. My case was due to inflammatory response of my lupus as well as complications from taking anticoagulant therapy to manage my other illness, APS. Both lupus and APS or Antiphospholipid Syndrome are invisible incurable autimmune illness that may be life threatening. Unfortunately the only drugs available to manage these diseases have toxic side effects themselves. Apparently my lupus had caused pericarditis (inflamed my heart sac) whilst my anticoagulants had lowered my blood clotting ability allowing 3.5 liters of blood [imagine 3 large 1 L pop bottles] to fill up the pericardium squeezing the heart until it stopped beating.

Update: All my tubes are gone. Chest staples removed. ECG looking great. I have made remarkable recovery considering the surgeons warned my loved ones I might not even survive the surgery. Its two months later, I am recovering at home back in front of the tube with my laptop tweeting and watching TCM ...

For more information about me, my illness and my advocacy...
http://alupussurvivor.blogspot.com/
http://alupussurvivor.ning.com/

Review | Once Upon a Time in The West: Love Poem to American Westerns

Cover of Once Upon a Time in the West  Once Upon a Time in The West is my all time favorite film as well as my favorite movie score. Bernardo Bertolucci, the co-writer of Once Upon a Time in The West, later directs The Last Emperor, which is my second all time favorite film as well as my second favorite movie score. Beware this is not your usual western. It is epic poetry. It is opera. It is a perfectly crafted art film that expresses Sergio Leone's true love for the great American Westerns. Leone doesn't necessarily romanticize the American West, he romanticizes American Western films. He makes references to High Noon, 3:10 to Yuma, The Comancheros, Shane, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine and many other great American Westerns very much the way Quentin Tarrantino has made films that pay homage to the gangster film genre.

Image by howzey via FlickrAlthough most of the film was shot in Spain & Italy like most spaghetti westerns, Leone traveled to John Ford's Monument Valley to capture the authentic Western United States panorama. Like Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar, it has a poetic quality that uses strong symbolism; but instead of symbolic words and lyrical phrases in the dialogue, Leone relies on the alliteration of sights and sounds to formulate poetic stanzas out of every scene. The length of the film is a result of Leone's choice to direct in a sometimes painstakingly slow pace that builds up incredible tension before key action scenes. He allows us time to imbibe the majestic landscapes, and appreciate the details of the authentic sets and costume design documenting this pivotal period in American history. Instead of cluttering the beauty of his carefully photographed frames with dialogue, close shots of these actor's iconic faces express all that needs to be said.

Image via WikipediaEnnio Morricone, also my favorite movie composer, scored five distinct musical themes that embody each of the main characters: widowed new bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale), mysterious harmonica-playing gunman (Charles Bronson), bandit Cheyenne (Jason Robards), hired gun Frank (Henry Fonda) and  railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti). Instead of a musical prelude, the movie opens with a symphony of natural sounds using a screeching windmill, a buzzing fly, dropping water and a ticking telegraph. Meticulous sound editors maintain continuity throughout this mostly visual narrative, composing a perfect harmony between each of the main character's musical motifs along side the multitude of natural sounds mostly inspired by the two major symbols, the railroad and the water. An impressive lengthy tracking shot introduces the "anti-heroine" Jill as well as the beginnings of a bustling railroad town. Don't miss the first few minutes of this movie. Without music nor dialogue, Leone creates one of the most suspenseful thrilling first few minutes of a movie whilst still rolling the opening credits. For all 168 minutes I was captivated by each and every frame! Once Upon a Time in the West is the finest example of Sergio Leone's creativity and perfectionism as a director, but most of all it is his greatest testament of love for the American Western.

Image via WikipediBTW Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds pays tribute to this film with an opening sequence entitled Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France.