Heh. Doug Messier has found exclusive footage of the arrival of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin at the new Vostochny spaceport under construction in eastern Russia, just prior to Vladimir Putin’s visit on Tuesday.
An evening pause: The closing music from the 1983 film Local Hero, performed live by its composer Mark Knopfler.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli.
Link here. And the story is surprisingly not much different than the movie itself.
An evening pause: A classic from 1969. I remember seeing this for the first time at one of the very first comic book conventions in New York. It brought the house down.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli.
An evening pause: Watch Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea in the classic kiss scene from The More the Merrier (1943).
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime (2014 edition).
An evening pause: From the classic musical, The Sound of Music (1965), a moment with few words where all things change because everyone understands everything anyway.
As I noted in my first Evening Pause on July 1, 2010, “Julie Andrews, in her prime, had one of the most incredible screen presences of any actor in the history of film.”
Five myths about hacking you probably believe, thanks to the movies.
The article is focused on hacking, but it really illustrates the general difference between reality and the movies in almost all things. You simply have to ask the same questions about almost every other Hollywood generalization to find out how far from reality those generalizations are.
Five stupid movie deaths that should have been really easy to avoid.
These examples are why I find most modern movies either boring, annoying, or stupid. They too often follow the same predictable action formula developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they too often require their main characters to act stupid, and they too often are based on ridiculous concepts that are so silly that even after typing randomly for one million years one million monkeys would find them unworthy.
An evening pause: As this is June 6, the anniversary of D-Day in World War II, let’s watch John Wayne show us how Americans once did it. From the 1962 film, The Longest Day.
An evening pause: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
Watch how a politician gets his underlings to do his dirty work, while keeping his own hands clean. From the 1964 film, Becket. Click through to part 15 to see that dirty work being done.
Barnes Wallis: the man behind World War II’s Dam Busters.
R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013).
An evening pause: If you listen real close to the second movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, you will hear the roots of this lovely song.
An evening pause: In honor of Rand Paul’s filibuster today, let’s watch Jimmy Stewart perform a movie filibuster from the (1939) movie, Mr. Smith goes to Washington.
As Mr. Smith says, “Somebody will listen to me.”
An evening pause: I posted this clip from the 1972 film, Man of La Mancha back in 2010, where Peter O’Toole, as Cervantes, explains why he does not like to look at life, “as it is.”
It is worth revisiting ever so often, as it invokes hope and the possibility that even in the worst times, all things are possible, if we demand it.
An evening pause: The words are still worth living by.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
An evening pause: A short clip from one of the best films ever made, Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954).
An evening pause: On this day, the 74th anniversary of the start of Krystalnacht in Germany, some appropriate and beautiful music from the animated film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
R.I.P. Actor Herbert Lom.
Good for them: More films about Mohammad in the works.
Not surprisingly, both filmmakers fear violence from the religion of peace.
Both filmmakers are closely guarding details of their productions due to security concerns. They decry “Innocence of Muslims” as historically inaccurate, offensive and of poor quality. In the wake of its release, Yousef has been scrambling to meet with his investors — whom he describes as a mix of Egyptians and Americans — and ensure that they’re still on board.
Sina, for his part, said he had been exploring ways to hide the identities of the producers and actors in his movie and said he would not reveal the planned location for the movie shoot. He described his investors as a handful of Persian atheists who live in Los Angeles. “I’ve become more secretive,” said Sina, who insists that his goal is not to incite Muslims but to persuade them.
The National Media Museum in Great Britain has restored the first color movie images, shot in 1901-1902. With video.
An evening pause: “Silly, isn’t he?”
From 1944, with numerous references to the war effort. What I like most, however, is the brazen confidence. Bugs Bunny in more ways than can be imagined so clearly represents the American spirit of the war years.
An evening pause: Of the movies from which these dance sequences come, how many can you name? All of them are worth watching, over and over again.
