Karina Longworth's Contact Sheet Book a Must for Film Fans

If you're a film fan, then the name Karina Longworth is likely very familiar to you. She produces and hosts the unique podcast entitled "You Must Remember This," which regularly delves into the Golden Age of Hollywood and tells stories, some of which aren't particularly well-known, about its famous denizens--actors, actresses, directors, screenwriters, and others.

In 2014, Longworth published a very interesting book entitled Hollywood Frame By Frame, which is a collection of contact sheets and photos shot by set photographers. Contact sheets, in the days before digital photography, were created by printing strips of film onto photographic paper. These contact sheets gave publicists, art directors and others at-a-glance images that could be used in marketing and publicizing films. Every set had--and has--a still photographer around to capture key moments during shooting.

In Longworth's book, she focuses on films made between 1951 and 1997, and covers many of the classic films from that era, as separated into a few categories. By flipping through the book, the reader/viewer gets a time capsule of the making of those films as seen through the set photographers' lenses. What's kind of fun is that the sequences of photos capture some fun and funny moments between serious poses. It's sort of a backstage pass to the world of moviemaking, and in this case, some of the biggest blockbusters of the time.

The book is available as a downloadable ebook from Apple iBooks at only $3.99. But you can also get a traditional edition via Amazon.

Just go to https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Frame-Unseen-Contact-1951-1997/dp/1616892595/ref=asc_df_1616892595/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=316665678877&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14676371902271821733&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052774&hvtargid=pla-491760528849&psc=1.

Going to the Tribeca Film Festival? Here's what you need to know.

Photo credit: Hollywood Reporter

It's Tribeca Film Festival time, Or, more accurately in New York vernacular, TriBeCa Film Festival time.

The annual celebration of independent -- and some not-so-independent -- film, launched in 2002 by Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, is just around the lower Manhattan corner.

April 19 to 30, to be exact.

Planning a trip to NYC is always a treat. New York is at once the crossroads of the world, the city that never sleeps and the coolest place ever to spend a day, a week, or, really, any length of time. So much to do. So much to see.

And when a major film festival is taking place, it's even more alluring.

Attending the festival? Here's some stuff you need to know:

A grand opening
The festival opens with world premiere of the documentary Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives at Radio City Music Hall, followed by a special concert featuring performances by Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more. The full lineup is here.

Godfather reunion!
Possibly the best reason to buy tickets as soon as possible. The festival will close with back-to-back screenings of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the first film’s theatrical release. The Radio City Music Hall event, held April 29, will also feature a reunion panel with director Francis Ford Coppola and actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro.

Special screenings

These include the world premieres of Zac Posen doc House of Z; Johnny Rotten doc The Public Image is Rotten; and Dare to Be Different, the story of the 1980s rebel Long Island radio station WLIR, which will include live performances by A Flock of Seagulls, The Alarm, and The English Beat. 

Virtual reality

This year, the festival will present a virtual reality program that includes a new film by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker).

Visit the festival's website for complete details.

TCM Host Robert Osborne dies at 84

If you watched Turner Classic Movies, you knew who he was. He often seemed like a friendly neighbor with whom you might sit on the porch, share a beer and talk about movies.

Robert Osborne, the longtime face of TCM, has passed away peacefully, according to reports, at the age of 84.

For those of us who are fans of classic films, Osborne was the quintessential insider. Back in the 1950s he was an actor. He never became a big name, let alone a star in that profession. But he loved the movies and was determined to make them his career.

He spent many years as an entertainment journalist before finding fame and, presumably, fortune as the guy who introduced old movies on TCM. He seemed to be on the network all the time, although in recent years he shared hosting duties with Hollywood scion, fellow movie expert and much younger screen presence Josh Mankiewicz.

Osborne, on his familiar set in the TCM studios in New York that was dressed to look like a living room, would look into the camera and tell us what we needed to know about the film. He provided essential information sprinkled with trivia. When presenting "Casablanca," he might tell us that the film starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergmen, and Sydney Greenstreet, and a little about the director. Then, he'd provide an anecdote or two about filming the production itself, or about how Bogie and Bergman got along.

He really was an insider and maintained friendships with some of the classic film stars. Every year there's a TCM festival in the Los Angeles area, and Osborne might interview a few actors or actresses on stage, in front of an audience. Or take part in a TCM cruise.

Osborne was really knowledgeable about the movies of yesteryear, from the silent and Pre-Code era to relatively recent releases. He would dispense information is a friendly, low-key manner and you knew you could take whatever he said about a given film to the bank.

There aren't many personalities like Robert Osborne who are still with us.His onscreen presence will be missed by movie fans worldwide.

Damien Chazelle's pre-"La La Land" movie is the excellent, intense "Whiplash"

Damien Chazelle has been the toast of Hollywood over the past few months. The 32-year-old Rhode Island native wrote and directed a little film called "La La Land," which has received a slew of awards and has reportedly grossed nearly $370 million to date. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, who previously teamed up in 2011's "Crazy Stupid Love," deliver a musical love letter to Hollywood in this film that everyone has either seen or can't wait to see.

Chapelle's previous film, 2014's "Whiplash," his second as a writer-director, was built around music as well, but the tone was markedly different. In that one, the supremely talented J. K. Simmons and Miles Teller star, respectively, as a jazz band teacher (Terence Fletcher) and drum student (Andrew Neiman) at Shaffer Academy, a Juilliard-like arts school in New York City. Fletcher is brash, demanding, profane, and abusive. Neiman is talented, earnest and determined not to let Fletcher destroy his ambition to be a jazz drummer.

Throughout the movie, teacher and student interact on a number of levels. We think we discover what made Fletcher so angry. Meanwhile, Neiman falls in love with a pretty girl but eventually believes that he needs to choose between love and music, dedicated to his art to the point that the two can't possibly co-exist, at least for him.

At the center of the story, though, is the game played by Fletcher and Neiman as the teacher continues to abuse the student and the student continues to exceed the expectations that have been placed on him. The last fifteen or so minutes of the movie provide a satisfying resolution to the story.

Chazelle's screenplay and direction would have you believe that he's been doing this for 20+ years. The story is well-paced and the conflicts and resolution are expertly handled.

I can't speak highly enough of Simmons' performance. An actor with an offscreen reputation for being one of the genuinely nice guys in the industry reverts in a way to the type of character he played back in the 1990s on HBO's prison drama "Oz." Bald with bulging biceps and dressed all in black, he embodies the villain archetype to its fullest potential. Teller a relative newcomer, brings innocence, intelligence and tenacity to his character. You root for him, want him to do well.

Paul Reiser's relatively minor role as Teller's working-class father, is a middle-aged everyman. And the musical score is powerful and perfectly complements the film.

After you've watched "La La Land," give "Whiplash" a view.

Watch the trailer.

A village movie theater shares the lead in 1988's wonderful Oscar winner, "Cinema Paradiso"

If you're a film lover, you can't help but be enthralled by "Cinema Paradiso," the film that was honored with an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988.

Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and featuring a lovely score by Ennio Morricone, who provided the music for all those great Sergio Leone-Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, the film tells the story of a boy named Salvatore growing in a tiny village in postwar Italy, the son of a war widow.

There's not much to do in Giancaldo, Sicily, but there is a movie house, so Salvatore begins spending lots of time there, developing a love for movies and befriending Alfredo the projectionist, who becomes his father figure. Alfredo eventually teaches Salvatore how to run the projector, a skill that will one day come in handy.

Over the course of the film, we follow Salvatore's journey from childhood to manhood and witness as he falls in love, acquires a small movie camera, joins the military, and experiences a series of life-changing events.

As Pixar's John Lasseter often says, it's all about the story, and "Cinema Paradiso" offers one that keeps the audience engaged. It's a charming film that presents the hero's journey in a quiet yet powerful manner.

Watch the trailer.

This Was Cinerama: Placing the audience into the movie

In 1952, people lined up around blocks in major cities to witness some new, fresh and dramatic that had arrived at their local movie theaters.

Cinerama.

After decades of viewing movies on traditional-sized theater screens, the wide screen format had arrived thanks to Fred Waller, a Brooklyn-born inventor and special effects artist working at Paramount Studios. Waller had devised a revolutionary wide-screen process that combined footage shot simultaneously using three cameras at separate angles. Projected together, they created a single, very wide image.

From Wikipedia:

The photographic system used three interlocked 35 mm cameras equipped with 27 mm lenses, approximately the focal length of the human eye. Each camera photographed one third of the picture shooting in a crisscross pattern, the right camera shooting the left part of the image, the left camera shooting the right part of the image and the center camera shooting straight ahead. The three cameras were mounted as one unit, set at 48 degrees to each other. A single rotating shutter in front of the three lenses assured simultaneous exposure on each of the films. The three angled cameras photographed an image that was not only three times as wide as a standard film but covered 146 degrees of arc, close to the human field of vision, including peripheral vision. The image was photographed six sprocket holes high, rather than the usual four used in other 35 mm processes. The picture was photographed and projected at 26 frames per second rather than the usual 24.

Although Waller was an innovator, his invention sat on the proverbial shelf for several years. Waller and his friend, Hazard "Buzz " Reeves, one of the country's top sound engineers with whom he had first worked at the Eastman Kodak exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair, shared it with journalist and broadcaster Lowell Thomas.

Thomas, with prominent film producer Mike Todd and, later, producer Merian C. Cooper, produced the first film to use this new process, a travelogue entitled "This is Cinerama," which opened at the Broadway Theater in New York on September 30, 1952. It was a huge event attended by numerous VIPs. It was even featured on the from page of the New York Times.

As audience members sat in the darkened theater, a black-and-white film began that featured traditional movie footage, followed by Lowell Thomas introducing the film. With his words, "This is Cinerama!" the curtains opened as Thomas image was replaced with dramatic wide screen point-of-view footage of a roller coaster, the Atom Smasher from Rockaway's Playland, ascending the tracks, launching a stunning, immersive audience experience.

View it here.

While the Cinerama experience was indeed remarkable, it was also very expensive to produce. Also, the image wasn't quite seamless, as there were visible lines where the three images joined. Still, it was a novel approach to entertainment that audiences enjoyed for a few years.

Only a few Cinerama films were made before the process gave way to other, newer (though less dramatic) widescreen formats like Cinemascope. Years later, the IMAX and Omnimax dome formats would take audience immersion to new levels.

If you'd like to know more about Cinerama, check out Dave Strohmaier's excellent documentary "Cinerama Adventure."

"Man of the Century: A movie so good it was (unfortunately) ignored

The 1999 indie film "Man of the Century" had everything going for it: an engaging concept and story, excellent acting and great cinematography.Unfortunately, what it didn't have was an audience. Sure, it played at a film festival or two, but the people who have watched and enjoyed it seem to have found it accidentally on cable several years ago. That's how I discovered it.

Gibson Frazier, who wrote the film, stars as Johnny Twennies, a fast-talking, chain-smoking newspaper reporter from the 1920s--who happens to live in modern day (well, circa 1999) New York City. His co-stars include fellow stage actors Susan Egan and Anthony Rapp. It's a cultural clash as Johnny, with his early-twentieth-century approach to situations, interacts with his friends and girlfriends, who are decidedly contemporary in contrast.

Check out the trailer. The film itself is available on websites like Amazon.