Academy Treasures
Today words and names like “wookiee,” “Jedi,” “Darth Vader” and Millennium Falcon are recognized in virtually every household, so it takes a little bit of imagination to return to that time orbiting May 1977 when the very first Star Wars film arrived in theaters. How was this new mythology and world of unknown creatures and concepts originally translated and advertised?
Charlie Chaplin is among the most beloved figures in film history, so it may come as a surprise that there was a period when public sentiment in the United States largely turned against him. Beginning in the early 1940s, Chaplin experienced a litany of personal and professional setbacks that included a bogus paternity lawsuit, an indictment under the Mann Act, an investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and poor public reception of his films. In 1952, following Chaplin’s departure for a visit to Europe with his family, the U. S.
In 1985, director Sydney Pollack entered his third decade as a feature film director with a dramatic change of pace from his previous Oscar-winning film, Tootsie. A seasoned filmmaker able to leap from one style of film to another ranging from The Way We Were to Three Days of the Condor, Pollack faced a unique challenge with what would become a popular success and a respected literary adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
Charles Guggenheim (1924-2002) was a master of the documentary form. Celebrated for such notable films as Robert Kennedy Remembered and Nine from Little Rock, the scope of his prolific career stands as a testament to his deep interest in committing the American experience to film.
Thanksgiving weekend box office is big business, providing studios and filmmakers an opportunity to take full advantage of a long holiday weekend to entice moviegoers into theaters. The tradition can be traced back to 1908, when the Selig Polyscope Company hoped to lure audiences to see On Thanksgiving Day, released on Thursday, November 26. The film’s climactic scene takes place during a Thanksgiving dinner.
A proud and patriotic tour through the Library’s reading rooms, book stacks, card catalogs and auditorium, the Academy Award-winning short documentary “Library of Congress” (1945), preserved by the Academy Film Archive, highlights the federal institution’s global and local impact.
What does it look like to be on the set of a Spike Lee film? That’s what you can find out in the photos of his brother, David Lee, who’s been capturing moments from the making of the 2015 Honorary Oscar recipient’s features through still unit work beginning with Spike’s first feature, She's Gotta Have It (1986), and up through 2012’s Red Hook Summer.
Francis Ford Coppola said that James V. Hart’s script for their 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula required the costumes to be the set. By collaborating with graphic designer Eiko Ishioka, Coppola fulfilled that vision and their work together resulted in some of the most memorable costumes ever made for these familiar characters.
Throughout the Studio Era, motion picture companies conceived elaborate marketing campaigns to promote their film product and the popular horror movies of the 1930s were no exception. Pressbooks, also known as showman’s manuals or exhibitor’s campaign books, were an important tool in this endeavor, created by studio publicity departments to guide theater owners in attracting audiences to their cinema – whether it be a big city movie palace or a small town picture house.
