Confidential

I was at work the other day, and saw one of my colleagues reading a trash magazine with nude pictures of some reality TV starlet splashed all across the front page, with a caption saying she wasn’t a whore when all about her pose screamed otherwise.Once upon a time movie stars not only built their success on talent instead of scandals, but avoided the latter like the plague. But trash did not wait for the 21stcentury to appear in newspapers.In Hollywood,...

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit

The title of the book by Gary K. Wolf "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" could be considered an omen for its film adaptation. Some of you may know that the film was slightly altered when it was released on home video. Animators in the pre-VHS era liked to have fun with their characters and several scenes were spiced up in such a way that, at 24 frames per second, only the most trained pair of eyes could actually see it.Apparently, in the theatrical version...

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A Star Is Born Again

I mentioned a restoration technique that I thought was interesting when I discussed Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon. A complete soundtrack was still extant but whole chunks of footage were missing. Instead of discarding the soundtrack, the restoration team opted to replace the missing parts with appropriately placed still pictures. Mason in costumeWhen the time came to restore A Star Is Born, a similar problem occurred. Even before the film’s premiere,...

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