movies
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I was reminiscing on TV shows I watched as a kid in the Netherlands. One of my favourite shows was a series called “Q&Q”. It was about 2 teenage detectives. The boys named Aristides Quarles and Wilbur Quant accidentally snap a photo of a dead body in the woods. After finding the place where the…
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There is still no news as of yet to who will replace Daniel Craig in the title role(no it’s not me) Of course with every Bond movie there is also the obligatory Bond song, there have been so many classic songs from “Goldfinger” by Dame Shirley Bassey to “Skyfall” by Adele. However there are quite…
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When I was a young boy, Count Dracula scared the crap out of me. Having an older brother pretending to be the blood sucking Count didn’t help either. The fear was so real that to this day I still have a phobia for Bats. Little did I know then I would end up living in…
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Alfred Hitchcock’s directorial debut, made at age 25, traces the intertwined love lives of two dancers at a London nightclub. At just 25, Alfred Hitchcock had already worked in nearly every role on the studio floor before being offered his first directing assignment by Gainsborough studio head Michael Balcon. He had designed title cards, written…
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On April 6, 1906, the first animated film recorded on standard picture film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, was released. Running just three minutes, this silent short was created by British-American film pioneer J. Stuart Blackton. The film presents a sequence of simple yet inventive scenes, including a dog jumping through a hoop and a…
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The highlight of the year for the movie industry is without a doubt, or at least it used to be. But when did it all start? In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was established by Louis B. Mayer, the founder of the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would…
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The 1922 silent masterpiece Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens) isn’t just a film; it’s a survivor. Directed by F.W. Murnau, it remains the foundational text of cinematic horror, having narrowly escaped a court-ordered destruction to become the definitive visual language of the vampire mythos. The Birth of a Shadow…
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I am always intrigued by “What if ?” scenarios, like what if Columbus had taken another route to India? Or what if JFK had not been in Dallas that day? What intrigues me most of all is the question, “What if the Nazis would have won the war?” or alternatively “What if Hitler would have…
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I pride myself to be a bit of a movie buff, but to my amazement I had never heard of this Oscar nominated and ‘Photo Play-Medal of Honor’ winner. Today marks his 140th birthday. He has been credited for directing at least 124 movies and shorts, which is an amazing feat by any measure. Herbert…
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Max Ehrlich (1892-1944) was one of the most celebrated actors and directors on the German comedy and cabaret scene of the 1930s. But his brilliant career was brutally interrupted by the rise of Nazism and his resulting deportation in 1942 to Westerbork concentration camp in the Netherlands. Amazingly, there behind the walls and barbed wire,…
History of Sorts 