Category: Movies

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Is Ready for Its Close-Up

They’re all here: ET pointing the way home; Dorothy’s iconic ruby slippers; Charles Foster Kane’s childhood sled, Rosebud; R2D2; the ravenous shark from “Jaws”—and so much more. It took 92 years to get this long-wished-for project completed. But on Sept. 20 the $484 million Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened its doors to the public,…


Hong Kong Passes Film Censorship Law to ‘Safeguard National Security’

HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s legislature passed a new film censorship law on Wednesday to “safeguard national security,” though critics say it will dampen creativity in its world-famous movie industry and further reduce freedoms in the former British colony. The Chinese communist regime imposed a sweeping “national security law” over its most restive city last year, and…


Flickering Flames: The Primordial Power of the Movies

Night. Somewhere in Northern Europe. (8,000 B.C.) Picture a cave with a fire burning just outside its mouth. Prehistoric men, women, and children are seated on the cave floor, every face alit with awe and wonder, under the spell of a master storyteller. Before them, an elder, dressed in animal skins and a headdress with…


Drive-Ins Offer More Than Movies

From time to time, residents of the little town of Farmington, Maine, gather to attend events that range from a craft fair and flea market to a band concert and a Catholic Mass. At a site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the attractions include an arcade, car museum, and swap shop. Rather than being seated in…


The Moral Certainty of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’

Director and producer Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 masterpiece, “Rope,” begins deceptively, with fine lilting music and scenes of an idyllic New York City block. A woman walks her baby in a stroller, a car glides down a one-way street, and a policeman escorts two boys through the light traffic. Despite omnipresent brick, glass, and concrete, the…


Movies, Morality, and Men: Gifts From Hollywood

Grab a bowl of popcorn and your favorite beverage, hit the sofa, dim the lights, and flick on the television screen. We’re off to the movies. Specifically, movies about men. Over the past century, Hollywood has produced thousands of cinematic portraits of men and manhood. They’ve stepped onto the big screen as good guys and…


George Clooney, Julia Roberts Reunite to Film in Australia

Oscar winners Julia Roberts and George Clooney will be filming in Queensland later this year thanks to a federal arts program. The romantic comedy, Ticket to Paradise has attracted a $6.4 million grant under the Location Incentive Program and is expected to create more than 270 jobs for the local cast and crew. Directed by…


Traveling to the Classics: The Best Destinations to Experience Some of Your Favorite Movies

Amid lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and plenty of sheltering in place, we’ve all become very familiar with our couches and televisions. Over the past year, streaming, internet use, and plain-old TV-watching surged, setting viewership records, as we settled in front of the warming glow of our screens, playing our favorite television series and movies. And the…