A 1953 Coronet educational film about where ‘Silent Night’ comes from. Many will be already familiar with the story. But this film takes a nice calm and measured approach to the churchy little story. I like churches just fine. I just don’t like seeing people inside them.
Author Archives: Cimaxion
Sally Saves Christmas
Some of the readers of this site will know that this story is the original piece of material behind Candlelight Stories. Back in 1994, I sat at a very flimsy folding table in a Los Angeles apartment with a box of pastels, crayons and ballpoint pens to scratch out a pile of illustrations that vaguely added up to some kind of Christmas tale. I still have all those original drawings in a big department store box.
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The Insects’ Christmas
A 1913 stop-motion film produced by the Russian Khanzhonkov Company and directed by Vladislav Starevich. Gorgeous. Look at how expressive Father Christmas is. He begins the tale as an ornament on a tree. He climbs down and makes his way into the forest.
The Cameraman’s Revenge
A Russian stop-motion animation from 1912. Directed by Ladislaw Starewicz. Angry, jealous, cheating beetles!
Here’s some more information about the filmmaker at Dangerous Minds.
Peace on Earth: Post-Apocalyptic Christmas 1939
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Inspired Christmas silliness! I found this over at Dangerous Minds.
Impressions [Visby] by Anders Weberg
Anders Weberg is an artist in Sweden who uses cell phone cameras to make his fluid, multi-layered works that are like quiet explosions of color.
Christmas Photos From Around the World
The Big Picture blog has posted a collection of photographs showing Christmas preparations and celebrations from around the world. This picture shows a woman in Manila connecting electric decorations while her son sleeps.
The photo is by Cheryl Ravelo of REUTERS.
It Came From Kuchar: Underground Film Documentary
Mike Everleth at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, has posted this fascinating documentary about legendary filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar. They’ve been making films separately and together for over 50 years. Don’t be misled by the term underground. These are simply wonderful and exuberant filmmakers who work in their own way and make films exactly the way they want to make them. Their enthusiasm for film, from totally independent low-budget to full-blown Hollywood spectacular, is infectious and should inspire any young filmmaker to follow his or her own muse and make what they really, deeply, necessarily want to make. You can find out a lot more by reading the Bad Lit article about the documentary.
By the way, Bad Lit is in fact the most infectiously enthralling film site you will read for a long time. Go there!
Manhatta 1921
This silent film, with assorted words of Walt Whitman, was photographed by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler.
Christopher Doyle on Cinematography
He reminds me a little of Keith Richards. He’s made some of the most beautiful films you may ever see with director Wong Kar Wai in Hong Kong. He seems to like wandering the colorful streets. Always talking about the light and color. Last night I took my new camera out along Ventura Boulevard very late. I was making a film by moving very slowly from window to window, shooting in an odd off-kilter way with closeups through glass and lights moving in and out of focus. It took me several hours to move three blocks up the boulevard. I haven’t seen the footage yet but the night was loaded with possibilities. Do you have any idea how many things you can come up with when you look inside a store’s display window? You can break it down almost infinitely and create images that have very little to do with the store. I find it a natural and obvious way to make a film. The sets are all there waiting for me to show up with my camera. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know what the film will be. It exists already and will make itself apparent when I start staring at my footage.
The Cinematographer
You’re going to love this!
Life in Hollywood 1927
Part 2 has some footage of silent movies being shot.
Los Angeles in the 1920s
This is an old silent film produced by Ford that shows Los Angeles in the twenties. You’d be amazed by how much of old LA you can still find. I’m working on a new film that’s going to be in large part about LA and the way a person perceives the city and self through images that are borrowed and may in fact have very little to do with the actual firm existing place. Finding this little film is part of my digging through material about the real and the fanciful Los Angeles.
