Film lovers rejoice. Legendary American filmmaker, long-dedicated cinpehile, and occasional MCU critic Martin Scorsese is taking his love of cinema in a new direction. His long-running nonprofit The Film Foundation, dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema, is officially launching a free virtual screening room to showcase film restorations.

The first Film Foundation restoration screening is set to launch Monday, May 9, and will feature the 1945 romantic comedy “I Know Where I’m Going!

Continue reading Martin Scorsese Foundation Launches Free Virtual Screening Room For Film Restorations at The Playlist.

The Films Of Powell & Pressburger: A Retrospective

Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger at The Playlist.

Secure in your masculinity this week? We hope so. With the thick-necked “The Expendables” in theaters this weekend, we thought we’d do an about face with the opposite: talk to Edgar Wright about musicals.
Here’s Edgar himself in his own words.
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I find it funny that musicals are considered a guilty pleasure by some film fans and dismissed outright by others. There’s definitely a feeling that contemporary audiences will not accept the form onscreen anymore, as evidenced by some fairly idiotic people leaving “Sweeney Todd” in disgust when Johnny Depp dared to sing out.It seems a shame that so many film fans write off the genre as Broadway camp as there are so many musicals stretching back over 80 years that define cinema in its purest form.

Continue reading Exclusive: My Top Ten Favorite Musicals (& Five Rock ‘N’ Roll Movies) By Edgar Wright at The Playlist.

The most wanted Most Wanted is a film by Alfred Hitchcock (seen pointing in set photo – even he was young once), his second directorial effort, in fact, a silent movie from 1926 called “The Mountain Eagle” — which, notwithstanding Hitch’s own comment in conversation with Francois Truffaut that it’s “a very bad movie” — is still a rather mouthwatering prospect for film historians and students alike.

Continue reading BFI Releases List of 75 Most Wanted Lost British Films Including Works By Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell & More at The Playlist.

Three previously released Criterion films will be refreshed and upgraded for DVD and Blu-Ray upgrade in July: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 classic “The Red Shoes” and their 1947 film “Black Narcissus.” Both have received highly touted, eye-popping high definition restorations (the former has been wowing audiences on a recent arthouse run).

Continue reading Criterion Announces July Slate: Restored ‘The Red Shoes,’ ‘The Secret Of The Grain,’ Early Ozu & More at The Playlist.

Among the recently released titles that will soon be scrubbed clean of the wacky Criterion C include Jean Luc-Godard’s “Pierrot Le Fou,” Jacques Tati’s “Trafic,” “Last Holiday,” “Le Jour Se Leve” and “Mayerling.” Important classic titles such as “Alphaville,” “Diary Of A Country Priest,” “Le Corbeau,” “Fallen Idol,” “Peeping Tom,” “Tales Of Hoffman” and spine number #1 “Grand Illusion” will also be disappearing from the collection.

Continue reading The Criterion Collection Loses Rights To A Handful Of Titles Including Spine #1 ‘Grand Illusion’ at The Playlist.

In an interview, which appeared in Screendaily Magazine, but is not available online, Scorsese is quoted as saying “As soon as we finish mixing ‘Shutter Island,’ which will be in August, Thelma and I are going to go back and take up where we were in the British documentary and hopefully construct a rough cut by the time i shoot my next picture.”

Scorsese has a long-standing love for British cinema and in the Screendaily mag interview also said it has influenced him greatly.

Continue reading Scorsese & Editor Gear Up For A Cinematic British Invasion: Their Long-Gestating U.K. Cinema Doc at The Playlist.