Felix the Cat

Felix the Cat, animated shorts:

Feline Follies, the first "Felix" short (1919)


Felix the Cat in Hollywood (1923)


Felix the Cat Monkeys With Magic (1925)

April Maze (1930):


Neptune Nonsense (1936) is the story of a lonely fishie.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol, another favorite Christmas movie at our house, is narrated by Gonzo as Charles Dickens and stars Michael Caine as Scrooge and Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit. This is a priceless adaptation of the book. The songs are fun, the humor hits just the right note and Michael Caine is, as always, perfect. We are big fans of Michael Caine, and his presence in a film is almost always enough for us to seek it out.

Here's the Scrooge song from the beginning of the movie:


We're not fans of the Muppet movies in general, though we loved their first movie and Muppet Treasure Island, but this film is a wonderful re-telling of the classic Christmas tale.

12/13/2008:
We watched this again tonight. The Husband says it makes him feel good, and Heaven help him, sometimes a feel-good movie is the perfect thing.

Fernand Leger

Fernand Léger was primarily a painter -the work pictured above is "The City" (1919), but he made one short film, Ballet Mecanique in 1924.

part 1:


part 2:


I didn't find this film at all interesting and much prefer his paintings.

Max Linder

I had never heard of Max Linder until I started looking into early film shorts. His short films are as funny as any I've seen by those who are more well known.

The Dentures (1909):

The Max Linder short is just the first 3 minutes of the video.

Max and the Lady Doctor (1909):


Troubles of a Grasswidower (1912):

Not for the faint of heart. That dinner!

Love's Surprises (1913):


Max Takes a Picture (1913):


Max Décoré (1914):

Yes, fashion is whatever the fashionable decide it is, but oh, my! what shoes!

Be My Wife (1921):


Seven Years Bad Luck (1921) is an hour long and much longer than the others I watched:

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay was an early film animator and "America's greatest cartoonist". I especially like his clouds and his waves. The movements of his figures seem more natural than some of the later animations I've seen.

Little Nemo (1911) is a partially hand-colored short:

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914):

The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918):

This was one of many WW1 propaganda efforts but the first animated one I recall seeing.

The Centaurs (remaining fragment) (1921):

Flip's Circus (1921):

The Flying House (1921):

update:
I got a comment below from someone who has a great homage site to McCay: Meeting McCay. The post on 12/4 is on Maurice Sendak, noting the obvious McCay influence on his work. We were always big Sendak fans when the kids were little but have just now discovered McCay. Earlier in the month he notes McCay's ties with Buster Keaton. It is a small world.

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story (1983) is the story of a childhood Christmas remembered and dramatically narrated by Ralphie, who wants that Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas more than anything in the world. The film is filled with subplots involving Ralphie's family and friends. Although The Husband and I like this movie The Younger Son does not, asking if it's a generational thing. Could be. There's nobody anywhere near his age in the film, and he just doesn't think it's at all funny...

trailer:


We saw it last year, too.

12/24/2007:
Cinematical has a review.

The Toy That Saved Christmas

The Toy That Saved Christmas is one of our favorite Christmas shows. Here's Larry's silly song just for a taste:



The video is a must-see for all ages. In fact our teens always liked it better than the younger kids, and The Husband and I love it. We even have Veggietale Christmas ornaments on our tree.

St. Nicholas

Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas, and a great feast it is indeed! A joyful day in Advent when we wake to find our stockings full of goodies.

The picture above is a detail from the Perugia triptych by Fra Angelico. This section illustrates the story of Saint Nicholas providing financial means for 3 girls without dowries.

We have a cd appropriate for the day- Legends of St. Nicholas: Medieval Chant and Polyphony by Anonymous 4.

Books for Saint Nicholas Day:

St. Nicholas and the Tub, written by Brian Burland, a Bermudan novelist, illustrated by Joseph Low, begins with "A Note to the Reader". It includes these words:

Exactly what Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, did, wrote or said, we do not know. But we do know that some poignant essence of the man and the life inspired, among other things, the happy tradition of giving in secret. We know also that the earliest paintings of St. Nicholas, some of which date back to the ninth century, depict him sstanding in a tub with three children at his side. We do not know why they are in the tub, although there have been various interpretations.

This story, which is meant to be read aloud, is a flight of fancy that relates a way St. Nicholas and the children may have got into that tub.

A Gift From Saint Nicholas, adapted by Carole Kismaric and illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak, has this description on the front dust jacket flap:

When Cecile sees the wonderful chocolate ship in Trinchen Mutser's candy shop, she dreams that it will be hers on Saint Nicholas Eve. Maybe, she thinks, if she can stay awake, she'll catch the ship as it sails down her chimney.

Alas, the chocolate Congo does not come to Cecile so easily. When Saint Nicholas and his assisant Ruprecht reach her house, they discover they have run out of presents...

The Baker's Dozen, A Saint Nicholas Tale, retold by Aaron Shepard and illustrated by Wendy Edelson, tells how Saint Nicholas teaches a baker to count. from the dust jacket:

The honest baker Van Amsterdam gives his customers exactly what they pay for -not more and not less. He is noted for the delicious Saint Nicholas gingerbread cookies he makes for the saint's feast day in December. Van Amsterdam carefully counts out twelve cookies for each customer who orders a dozen -until the day when a strange old woman asks for a dozen cookies and insists that a dozen is thirteen. But the baker will not agree. "Your heart is small, and your fist is tight," she tells the ungenerous Van Amsterdam as she leaves the cookies behind. "Fall again, mount again, learn how to count again!" From that moment everything goes wrong in Van Amsterdam's shop -until Saint Nicholas himself sets things straight. The Dutch colonial tale of Saint Nicholas and the baker's dozen is one of America's oldest and most beloved legends.

Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch (1917-2004) was a French film maker and anthropologist whose films often focused on life in Africa.

Burial in the Cliff documents funeral ceremonies of the Dogon on Mali.
part 1:


part 2:


Les Tambours d'Avant is a documentary short which portrays a possession ritual in Nigeria. This version has no English intertitles, but is easily understandable without them:


The Mad Masters, another documentary short, is online in 3 parts. It is a graphic portrayal of religious ritual among the Hauka. I found this disturbing to watch as this was documentary film of an actual ceremony, and the people, believing themselves possessed by the spirits of old Western colonial powers, slaughter a dog and drink the blood from its throat. Don't say I didn't warn you.
part 1:


part 2:


part 3:


Hippopotamus Hunt is online in 4 parts. Part 1 is here:


and you can see part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here.

These documentaries are fascinating!

René Clair

René Clair (1898-1981) was an award-winning French film maker.

Entr'acte (1924) includes music by Eric Satie:

I watched it, of course, and am thoroughly confused, though I do want to say we love that camel, especially the hearse on a roller coaster part. I expected it to make some coherent sense and it didn't make the kind of coherent sense I expected. There is information on and evaluation of the film short here, at FilmReference.com and at ubu.com. House of Mirth and Movies has a review.

Paris Qui Dort (1925) is available at DailyMotion.com here:

Paris qui dort
Uploaded by XLanig. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

There is information on this short science fiction film at FilmsDeFrance.com. There are no English intertitles, but it's easy enough to understand from the plot summary at Wikipedia:

The film is about a mad doctor who uses a magic ray on citizens which causes them to freeze in strange and often embarrassing positions. People who are unaffected by the ray begin to loot Paris.

You can see a 17-minute BBC documentary on Clair at ubu.com. It includes biographical material and interviews.

Winter and Night

Winter and Night by S.J. Rozan is another in the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series and the third that I have read. This one, like No Colder Place, focuses on the Bill Smith character, while Reflecting the Sky concerns Lydia Chin. Winter and Night won the Edgar Award in 2003.

from the back of the book:

Private detective Bill Smith is hurtled headlong into the most provocative-and personal-case of his career when he receives a chilling late night telephone call from the NYPD, who are holding his fifteen-year-old nephew Gary. But before he can find out what’s going on, Gary escapes Bill’s custody and disappears into the dark and unfamiliar streets...

Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, try to find the missing teen and uncover what it is that has led him so far from home. Their search takes them to Gary’s family in a small town in New Jersey, where they discover that one of Gary’s classmates was murdered. Bill and Lydia delve into the crime-only to find it eerily similar to a decades-old murder-suicide...

Now, with his nephew’s future-and perhaps his very life-at stake, Bill must unravel a long-buried crime and confront the darkness of his own past...

There's music in this book. Now, really, I don't know if this is something I'd just never noticed before or if this is a fad that cropped up in the early 2000's, but it's interesting that the last couple of mysteries I've read make it a point to mention which cd is on. In this book Gould's Bach, the Brahms Sonata in F-sharp minor, Bach's French Suites, Sinatra and Copland's Piano Sonata each get a mention, and all the music is in the first 1/3 or so of the book. It's just odd.

I liked the book and the main characters. I thought the writing was better in the last Rozan book I read, but this one was still a fine read. The pacing was good.

Robert Breer

Robert Breer has a page at UbuWeb where there is some background information on him and where some of his films are embedded.

A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957):

is a fun 2-minute drawn animation.

69 (1968):

I haven't had a problem with this in other films, but I found the repetitive imagery in 69 to be downright distressing, and though I made it through the entire 4 1/2 minutes, it wasn't easy.

Chris Marker

Chris Marker (b. 1921) is a French film maker, among other things.

Les Astronautes (1959):

There is an owl featured in this little 12-minute film, so you really should give it a chance. The owl first shows up right at the beginning. Let that be a lesson to you: Never save small red rockets.

La Jetée (1962):

is currently best known for having inspired the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys. Senses of Cinema has an essay on the film.

Mary Ellen Bute

Mary Ellen Bute (1906-1983) was an experimental film maker whose films were visual imaginings of musical works.

Rhythm in Light (1934):



Tarantella (1940):

Robert Louis Stevenson

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1894 of Robert Louis Stevenson. I discovered Stevenson when young and introduced him to my children when they were young, though they never liked A Child's Garden of Verses like I did. Treasure Island was our favorite, which probably places us squarely with the majority of his readers.

I discovered his travel writing after the kids were school-aged and wonder why they aren't better known, unless it's just that travel narratives seem less-read than fiction. I have these: An Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes published together in a volume of The Gateway Series of English Texts; and The Amateur Emigrant, Across the Plains and The Silverado Squatters in The Travels and Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Stevenson because of his defense of Father Damien. It endears him to me.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp made one film in collaboration with Man Ray and Marc Allégret. He was primarily a painter.


Anemic Cinema (1926):


The picture at the top of the post is of Nude Descending A Staircase, No. 2 (1912).

Maria Ouspenskaya

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1949 of Maria Ouspenskaya. She is a favorite of mine, and I treasure her particularly in The Wolf Man (1941) and Love Affair (1939). She has films listed at the IMDB from 1915-1949.

Rose Hobart

Rose Hobart(1936) is a short experimental film directed by Joseph Cornell. You can watch this under-20 minute film here:

Rose Hobart
Uploaded by zohilof

or here at ubu.com, where you can also read a bit about Cornell.

The film consists of blue-tinted excerpts of star Rose Hobart in scenes from "East of Borneo" with footage of an eclipse. And there are crocodiles. And a monkey.

Here's the inspiration piece East of Borneo:


1/15/2010: Ferdy on Films has a post.

All I Have to Do Is Dream

All I Have to Do Is Dream (1958) by The Everly Brothers:


The list of 500 Songs that shaped Rock and Roll comes from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

We're No Angels

We're No Angels (1955) is one of my favorite Christmas movies, although I never see it listed when folks are posting recommendations of must-see holiday films. There's no accounting for taste.... This movie is priceless, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray and Adolph (as the snake) as the titular angels who take care of everything. Basil Rathbone plays the bad guy against Leo G. Carroll who plays his bumbling, well-meaning cousin. Joan Bennett is Leo G. Carroll's wife. The film is directed by Michael Curtiz.

11/28/2008:
We watched this tonight as our first holiday film this season. It's a perennial favorite. I see I haven't noted before that Gloria Talbott plays the daughter of Leo G. Carrol and Joan Bennett. She's perfect -the movie is perfectly cast- and is a great fainter. I saw her this past October in The Cyclops.

TCM has an overview. The New York Times reviews it here.

I still can't find a trailer online.