Heavenly Christmas Film Classics

Festival Films is offering a perfect opportunity to make the perfect Christmas present for film lovers dear to you."Heavenly Christmas Film Classics" contains rare and even never before seen shorts or TV episodes.Animation fans are in for a treat! If you don't know Lotte Reiniger, this is a perfect introduction to her work. She is a pioneer in animation and if you think Walt Disney's Snow White is the first animated feature, well you're wrong. It...

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Dracula

Universal is celebrating its 100th anniversary and one of the studio's trademark has recently seen a Blu-ray box set release.Universal monsters movies have defined the codes of the genre, not to mention the features of Halloween masks for centuries to come.And the first Universal talking picture stars the most famous of them all. In 1931, the first official screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula hit the screen. It had been preceded by Murnau's...

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Larry & Hardy

When reviewing great comedy duos, sooner or later, you're bound to think of Laurel & Hardy. Yet, the partnership could have been very different. In 1918, Stan Laurel began working with comedy star Larry Semon. Don't remember him ? I'm not surprised. At the time, he was Vitagraph studio's star and was producing, writing directing and starring in his films.Larry SemonHis success grew throughout the following years, but the partnership with...

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Song Of The South

Disney has always had a policy of putting their films back into the vault to create demand and make sure that they meet with renewed interest when re-released theatrically or on home video once every ten years or so.Yet, some films never get out of the vault.Song of the South is probably the only Disney classic which seems to be shelved for an indefinite period of time. The film was made in 1946 and the story takes place during the "reconstruction...

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The Mysterious Cities of Gold

One of the best animated TV series was born from the collaboration of a French idea and amazing Japanese artistry. Director Bernard Deyriès and producer Jean Chalopin had already collaborated with TMS for their previous production Ulysses 31 which met with great success. Now, the series was to be co-produced by Studio Pierrot (Creamy Mami, Naruto, Bleach, etc.).Although both series were released around the world, the basis for the international...

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Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo has recently been voted best film ever by Sight and Sound. In my book, it’s been competing for the title with Disney's Snow White for years (granted, in a very different style). For legal reasons, that film has been lost for decades after its initial release during which its moderate success disappointed the director. After the long hiatus, Universal (new owner of the rights after Paramount and Hitchcock himself) re-released...

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Beyond The Rocks

"That, after all, was supposed to be the great virtue of pictures - that they would last forever." Gloria Swanson naively wrote in her 1980 autobiography. But she had to admit that there was no remaining copy of her 1922 film Beyond The Rocks, in which she starred with legendary Rudolph Valentino (or Rodolph as he was called then).Two stars of such magnitude at the time just did not appear together in a film because their contracts usually prevented...

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