Ear Shadow

It finally happened.

Yesterday I came up with a plan to make myself rich.

Every day, millions of people around the world apply eye shadow to their eyelids to enhance their beauty.

And yet the ears, save perhaps the addition of jewelry, are neglected.

But the ears, with their many folds and crenelations, seem designed for the application of makeup in a multitude of hues and shades to accentuate those ear-otic passages.

Imagine the delicate fossa painted an elegant mauve, which fades into a darker purple along the scapha, then transitions to a vibrant cobalt blue twisting into the antihelical fold, the antihelix, antitragus and into the ear canal itself. Perhaps the concha could be set apart in amber or emerald green.

Whatever shades best suit your aural fixation, there will be an ear shadow palette to match your look. I'll market it under the trade name Earl Shadow, or perhaps Shadow d'Earl. Of course I'll have to come up with an ad campaign to make people feel insecure about their looks first, but I have decades of Madison Avenue techniques to draw upon for that...

Happy 74th, Dad!

One of the joys of middle age is having healthy, happily retired parents, for which I'm grateful beyond measure. Sylvia and Sean and I presented Dad with a challenging Lego cargo helicopter, which should keep him busy for a while. 

Escape from the Batcan

With a little Photoshop trickery, an image I shot in Stephen's Batcan is transformed into a faux cover of Detective Comics. 

My Facebook Graffiti Archive: The Rebuttals

Here are drawings other, more talented, people posted on my Facebook wall with the Graffiti application. I can identify art by Sean, Andrea and/or Greg, and Jeff, posted by his wife Susan. My sentimental favourite is the wedding postcard, and I adore both "Who...SHAVING CREAM?!?" and the jaws laughing at my grave, but clearly Jeff's "Earl in S.T. uniform attacked by cute hamsters with blood-soaked weapons" is the most accomplished in terms of technique and irony.

Here's an idea: assuming Graffiti still works, maybe I should use it to post something on the wall of each and every one of my Facebook friends, even those I haven't met in person. Hmmm...

My Facebook Graffiti Archive

Back when I first joined Facebook, I was quite tickled by the Graffiti application. As you can see, I'm a terrible artist, but I am nonetheless pleased by the sheer depth of ineptitude displayed here. My favourite sequence runs through the middle row, starting with "NAES WAS HERE." 

The Night Sweats

They come while you sleep
While you're helpless
Liquid fear seeps up from under the bed
From out of the closet
Dark tendrils slithering
Your toes twitch
Your nostrils flare
Your eyes dart back and forth beneath lids that refuse to open
There's something in the bathroom mirror but it's not your reflection
That noise wasn't the furnace
The thing in your dreams is daring you to wake up
Because if you do
That's how they get you

On Letterboxd: The Best and Worst of Trek

It's hard to believe I haven't ranked the Star Trek films before, but I finally did so about a month ago on my Letterboxd page. Did Wrath of Khan come out on top? Is Star Trek V still the worst of the lot? Find out here. 

Images Found in a Random Folder

Saturday Night in '77

Starting a Pandemic Legacy

Surfacing: A Dramatic Reading

I've Seen C-Beams...

Over on JSVB, Jeff writes about the spiritual and ethical issues surrounding the creation of artificial beings through the lens of popular culture. A gorgeous painting of Roy Batty accompanies the essay; both are worth careful study.

Assuming I'm reading Jeff's essay and painting correctly, he's troubled by the thorny issues arising from the concept of human-created artificial intelligence and suggests that, at least in the examples he cites (the films Ex Machina and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence), such creations are immoral or at best amoral; "why do we create things we hate?" he asks.

It's a good question; as Jeff notes, most SF stories involving AI view our creations as threatening, often to the existential level. He also touches on the questions of commercialism and the act of creation itself.

Really, it's best if you read Jeff's essay rather than my weak synopsis. Personally, I found it thought-provoking enough to revisit a short story I abandoned some years ago. I hope its revision will serve as commentary on Jeff's work; watch for it coming soon. 

Chaperone Champs

I don't know if I shot this or if it was another Leduc Junior High School yearbook club member, but I'm grateful to have the shot in either case; here are my parents chaperoning the 1984 Grade 9 Farewell dance. Shot on film in glorious black and white!

Acklands from All Angles

When Sean and I went to visit Leaf Rapids in 2009, I took along Mom and Dad's old T70 and shot in both colour and black and white - on film, that is. This is the building that once housed the Acklands Dad managed, and which he and Mom, in fact stocked and opened for its grand debut in Leaf Rapids.

Here I am, surveying the building.

And here I am posing in front of it.

Sean was born in Leaf Rapids, but we left too early in his life for him to remember much of it, which is why I'm glad we went.

Sean and the door. It used to be glass, of course.

This was shot digitally, as was the next image, but this shows the building's colour (such as it is).

This image was shot on film, but in 2006, when I brought Sylvia to see the wonders of Leaf Rapids.

Here's the back of the building in 2006, which often served as my gateway to adventure those times when I wasn't in school and Mom and Dad were working. There's a steep sand dune on the other side of the Acklands, which I used as the locale for the many adventures I had with my Kenner Star Wars action figures and my die-cast Corgi Batmobile.

Here is a panorama of the sand dunes behind the Acklands building. I also remember the really great blueberries that grew wild here.

And there you have it. This may be the single most comprehensive collection of the Leaf Rapids Acklands location ever assembled.

Special bonus image! They're too small to see, but poor Sylvia was swarmed with bugs during her time in Leaf Rapids. They left me alone. I made it up to her by proposing, though!

The Wicker Spider-Man

I know I've told the story of rubber Spider-Man's sacrifice before, but I'm quite taken with this haunting photo of the festivities, taken without a flash. Bonfire of the spider-manities! 

Super Foul Mouthed

Back when I lived in the Bleak House of Blahs, I had a stand-up cardboard Superman given to me by the folks at comic store Warp One. One day Ron or Allan added a dialogue balloon with an inspirational phrase lettered across it. On another occasion, though, one of them wrote something so indecent and out of character that I was stunned senseless, as captured in this photo. I don't believe you can make out the awful text at this resolution - at least, I hope not! 

Disneyline

In 1992, the University of Alberta Star Trek Club, accompanied by the University of Alberta Scuba Club, packed into a van and drove to Disneyland. Here we are waiting in line for a ride; I don't remember which one. Nor do I remember why I looked unimpressed, because it was an amazing trip. 

Fast & Furious

I don't remember who took this photo back in 1990 - it might have been Ron, it might have been me, it might even have been a proto-selfie shot by Tony himself - but I've always loved the juxtaposition of Tony's Muppet-like wonder over Jeff's annoyed fury in the background. It's possible I'm mixing memories, but I believe we were on the way to shoot off a bunch of fireworks in the vacant lot across from Tony's apartment. The video of that event is pretty amusing...

OUTRAGEOS

"OUTRAGEOS," I responded in jest to an email from a colleague. I noticed the typo before replying, but left the mistake intact because it amused me. I'm not expecting OUTRAGEOS to catch on and become the next "pwned" or "rekt," but it's mine...the perfect expression of mock over-the-top fury. 

Blazing Earl News Logo

Way back in the mid 1990s, I produced Blazing Earl News, a silly newsletter I sent out to about a dozen friends on a very irregular schedule. In 1996 I ran a logo contest, won by Jim MacDonald. Here he is accepting his "award," bad PhotoShop and all.

And here's the logo Jim designed:

Pretty snazzy!

The Earliad exists because I really enjoyed producing Blazing Earl News, and I wanted to continue publishing nonsense for the enjoyment (?) of my friends. 

Off to Live on Mars

Thanks to Sean, I was able to experience David Bowie live, in a sense; you can read about that in this 2003 post from the early days of this blog. Today I'm doubly thankful to Sean for inviting me along, as David Bowie has, I hope, ascended to a higher plane, for it's nearly impossible to believe that he's merely dead.

While I feel knowledgeable enough to critique film and prose, I consider myself a layman when it comes to music; lacking any education or research into the field, I can only say that I know what I like and I know what moves me. "Heroes" is one of my favourite singles of all time, from any artist. "Blue Jean" takes me back to the painful but thrilling days of my adolescence. "Life on Mars" and "Space Oddity" helped cement my love of the fantastic in all its forms.

There's so much more to Bowie than his singles, of course. But his popular hits resonated with me throughout my life, as I imagine they will do as long as I'm around.

I haven't yet listened to "Lazarus," one of Bowie's last releases. Here's the video; I'm about to watch it for the first time. I imagine it's probably great.

No. 3

Ode to an African Violet

You, thou easiest of plants to foster, there with your innocent purple faces turned skyward
Green leaves reaching out for sustenance, so trusting and earnest, by experience yet unbetrayed;

For months you should enjoy the sun's kiss, forever in bloom,
Casting your cheerful glow about the room;

But yet you have no limbs, your leaves can only capture light
Just as love, it's not enough, there must be more; there must be water

And while your caretaker remembered three, four, six, a dozen, two dozen times
Eventually your novelty wore thin and his carelessness waxed

Day by day your earnest leaves drooped in sorrow
Your flowers lost their violet lustre

And saddened but wiser, you surrendered back into the soil
From which you came.

Jungle Kirk

Perhaps if arcade game manufacturer Taito had released Jungle Kirk instead of Jungle King, they wouldn't have gotten in so much trouble with Burroughs, Inc. On the other hand, I suppose Paramount probably wouldn't have been too happy... 

Captain Kirk in a Jam

Polaroids from the Edge of Nowhere

I don't remember us ever having a Polaroid camera, but somehow the Woods family wound up with a few Polaroid images, which I've scanned for posterity. These were all taken in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, sometime in the mid-1970s; my parents are at the bottom, with the Acklands store that drew us to Leaf Rapids immediately above them. The rest of the photos feature my brother and me with some garish 1970s furniture. 

The Edible Battlefield

The Lion in Winter in Winter

On Sunday night I watched The Lion in Winter, the 1968 Best Picture nominee about courtly intrigue in 12th century England. While viewing, I found the affair to be a bit staid, though not without its pleasures, chiefly of performance and the endless string of clever barbs. But the final scene, in which the scheming Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and his estranged wife Duchess Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn) part after a Christmas full of plot and counter-plot, so brilliantly encapsulates the preceding two hours that the film as a whole leaped considerably in my estimation.

"I hope we never die!" says Henry with a smile as Eleanor's barge starts its journey back to her prison.

"So do I!" she replies, laughing.

"Do you think there's any chance of it?" Henry asks, and their laughter echoes through the ages...securing their immortality. 

Glacier National Park, 1983

These photos were all shot with my second Kodak, the one that shot 110 film. This was the trip when we drove right past then Vice President George H.W. Bush's limo; he was at the park for some reason. 

Saturday Night Art Auction

Movies I Watched in 2015

It turns out that I watched a lot of movies in 2015 - more than ever before, an almost embarrassing number: 209. However, this year I started counting short films, not because I wanted to inflate my numbers, but because I think they deserve their due. About 40 of the films I watched in 2015 were shorts, including five screened at the Edmonton International Film Festival, a bunch of Chaplin shorts viewed on YouTube, and a wonderful batch of really excellent and interesting 3D pictures on my favourite Blu-Ray of the year, 3D Rarities. 

I saw a bunch of great movies this year; I'm especially fond of the short The House is Innocent, about a couple who buy a house that was the site of an infamous multiple murder and make it their own with their own special brand of macabre humour; Ex Machina, the last film I watched in 2015, a tightly written examination of the possibilities of strong AI; Whiplash, my favourite of the 2014 Best Picture nominees; Witness for the Prosecution, which features a performance twist so incredible I nearly jumped out of my seat; the bleak and unforgettable The Spy Who Came in From the Cold; my favourite film of 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road; the creepy and revelatory Nightcrawler; the laugh-out-loud, lives-up-to-the-promise-of-its-trailer Kung Fury; the horrifying and yet beautiful The Wicker Man; Woody Allen's disturbing Crimes and Misdemeanors; the surprisingly excellent, badly-titled SF action film Edge of Tomorrow; Ant-Man, another fun hit from Marvel; Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, the second great Mission: Impossible film in a row; The Breakfast Club, a film I really should have watched when it was released; the breathtaking and inspirational The Martian; the surprisingly good Keanu Reeves vehicle John Wick; Ingmar Bergman's magnificent Persona; the sad and haunting Midnight Cowboy; and 2015's likely Best Picture winner, Spotlight. 

Disappointments included the latest Bond film, Spectre; the undercooked The Talented Mr. Ripley; The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything, which to my mind glossed over the accomplishments of two great scientists; Akira, which I found underwhelming given its reputation; Roman Polanski's meandering Tess; and the good but not great Bridge of Spies. 

Just plain terrible films included Fantastic Four, Jupiter Ascending and Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage. I also suffered through the Fast & Furious catalogue, which includes seven bad but oddly compelling bromance action films. 

I knocked at least 20 Best Picture nominees of my list this year, and possibly more, depending on if any of the 2015 films I screened wind up being nominated for this year. 

Unlike my reading list, which is heavily weighted toward science fiction, my film tastes are more diverse; oddly enough, comedies topped my list this year, followed closely by SF, documentaries and straight dramas. While about a quarter of the films I screened were released in this decade, the rest are spread pretty evenly through the 20th century. 

This year Allan introduced me to Letterboxd, the social media hub for film nerds, and I've been busily filling in, to the best of my memory and fragmented records, every movie I've ever seen. I've collected all of my existing film reviews there, along with a couple of new lists and new short reviews as the mood strikes me. Those interested should feel free to peruse my Letterboxd profile. 

Without further ado, here's the list: 

January: 13

The Quatermass Experiment (Sam Miller, 2005)

Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923)

Take a Chance (Alfred J. Goulding, 1918)

Young Mr. Jazz (Hal Roach, 1919)

His Royal Slyness (Hal Roach, 1920)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)

The Thief of Bagdad (Michael Powell and Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan, 1940)

The Lion Has Wings (Michael Powell and Brian Desmond Hurst and Adrian Brunel, 1939)

Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (David Gill and Kevin Brownlow, 1989)

A Sammy in Siberia (Hal Roach, 1919)

A Slight Case of Murder (Lloyd Bacon, 1938)

Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987)

Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)

February: 7

American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro G. Inarritu, 2014)

Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014)

Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)

The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, 2014)

March: 10

When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Mate, 1951)

Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)

Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)

Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)

Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli, 1950)

Father’s Little Dividend (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)

Revenge of the Ninja (Sam Firstenberg, 1983)

Ninja III: The Domination (Sam Firstenberg, 1984)

Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (Shahin Sean Solimon, 2014)

April: 22

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney, 2015)

Murder by Death (Robert Moore, 1976)

Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)

Dune (David Lynch, 1984)

Hollow Man (Paul Verhoeven, 2000)

The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)

The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955)

1941 (Steven Spielberg, 1979)

The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957)

City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak, 1940)

San Quentin (Lloyd Bacon, 1937)

Each Dawn I Die (William Keighley, 1939)

Bullets or Ballots (William Keighley, 1936)

Smart Money (Alfred E. Green, 1931)

The Mayor of Hell (Archie Mayo, 1933)

Picture Snatcher (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)

Lady Killer (Roy Del Ruth, 1933)

Cyrano de Bergerac (Clement Maurice, 1900)

Jack and the Beanstalk (Edwin S. Porter, 1902)

Black Legion (Archie Mayo, 1937)

Brother Orchid (Lloyd Bacon, 1940)

May: 14

Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015)

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Martin Ritt, 1965)

The Little Giant (Roy Del Ruth, 1933)

Kid Galahad (Michael Curtiz, 1937)

Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993)

Superman Unbound (James Tucker, 2013)

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Anatole Litvak, 1938)

Invisible Stripes (Lloyd Bacon, 1939)

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

Larceny, Inc. (Lloyd Bacon, 1942)

Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film (Constantine Nasr, 2008)

Kung Fury (David Sandberg, 2015)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)

Fury (David Ayer, 2014)

June: 5

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)

Time Lapse (Bradley King, 2014)

Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999)

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)

Project Almanac (Dean Israelite, 2015)

July: 12

Jupiter Ascending (The Wachowskis, 2015)

Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)

The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? (Jon Schnepp, 2015)

The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Huw Evans, 2011)

Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (Herbert Ross, 1976)

The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984)

Cotton Comes to Harlem (Ossie Davis, 1970)

The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)

Ant-Man (Peyton Reed, 2015)

The Fast and the Furious (Rob Cohen, 2001)

2 Fast 2 Furious (John Singleton, 2003)

August: 17

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)

Fast & Furious (Justin Lin, 2009)

Fast Five (Justin Lin, 2011)

Fast & Furious 6 (Justin Lin, 2013)

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin, 2006)

Furious 7 (James Wan, 2015)

Prelude to Axanar (Christian Gossett, 2014)

Aelita: Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, 1924)

Skippy (Norman Taurog, 1931)

Probe (Russ Mayberry, 1972)

Star Trek: Renegades (Tim Russ, 2015)

To Trap a Spy (Don Medford, 1964)

One of Our Spies is Missing (E. Darrell Hallenbeck, 1966)

The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)

The Spy with My Face (John Newland, 1965)

One Spy Too Many (Joseph Sargent, 1966)

The Spy in the Green Hat (Joseph Sargent, 1967)

                             

September: 15

The Karate Killers (Barry Shear, 1967)

How to Steal the World (Sutton Roley, 1968)

The Helicopter Spies (Boris Sagal, 1968)

The Bubble (Arch Oboler, 1966)

The 27^th Day (William Asher, 1957)

The Night the World Exploded (Fred F. Sears, 1957)

The H-Man (Ishiro Honda, 1958)

12 to the Moon (David Bradley, 1959)

Battle in Outer Space (Ishiro Honda, 1959)

Valley of the Dragons (Edward Bernds, 1961)

The Italian Connection (Fernando Di Leo, 1972)

Super Fuzz (Sergio Corbucci, 1980)

Wild, Wild Planet (Antonio Margheriti, 1965)

Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944)

The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929)

                                                                                                                                             

October: 39

Lego Batman The Movie: DC Super Heroes Unite (Jon Burton, 2013)

Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983)

Movies of the Future (William van Doren Kelley, 1923)

Thru the Trees – Washington, D.C. (William van Doren Kelley, 1923)

Plastigrams (Jacob Leventhal and Frederick E. Ives, 1924)

Stereoscopiks (Jacob Leventhal and Frederick E. Ives, 1924)

Ouch (Jacob Leventhal and Frederick E. Ives, 1925)

Runaway Taxi (Jacob Leventhal and Frederick E. Ives, 1925)

Audioscokpiks (Jacob Leventhal and John Norling, 1936)

Thrills for You (Pennsylvania Railroad, 1940)

New Dimensions (Chrysler, 1940)

Now is the Time (Norman McLaren, 1951)

Around and Around (Norman McLaren, 1951)

O Canada (Evelyn Lambart, 1952)

Twirligig (Gretta Eckman, 1952)

Bolex Stereo (Bolex, 1952)

M.L. Gunzburg Presents Natural Vision 3-Dimension (Milton Gunzburg, 1952)

Rocky Marciano vs. Jersey Joe Walcott (John Boyle, 1953)

Stardust in Your Eyes (Phil Tucker, 1953)

Doom Town (Gerald Schnitzer, 1953)

The Adventures of Sam Space (Paul Sprunck, 1960)

I’ll Sell My Shirt (Dan Sonney, 1953)

Boo Moon (Izzy Sparber and Seymour Kneitel, 1953)

The Champ (King Vidor, 1931)

Mo’s Bows (Jennifer Treuting and Kristen McGregor, 2015)

The House is Innocent (Nicholas Coles, 2015)

We Live This (James Burns, 2015)

Happy Town: The Surf Suit (Frederick Kroetsch, 2015)

All-American Family (Andrew Jenks, 2015)

The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015)

Tess (Roman Polanski, 1979)

Parallels (Christopher Leone, 2015)

Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)

Curse of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)

White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932)

Night of the Ghouls (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1958)             

Tales from the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton, 1948)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

November: 16

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Victor Fleming, 1941)

The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936)

Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Kock, 1958)

You’ll Find Out (David Butler, 1940)

Zombies on Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945)

I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945)

Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, 1945)

Bedlam (Mark Robson, 1946)

Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015)

The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, 1943)

The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (Constantine Nasr, 2005)

Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (Kent Jones, 2007)

Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh, 2015)

December: 48

Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)

Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999)

Catch Me if You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002)

Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)

Aliens of the Deep (James Cameron, 2005)

Sleuth (Kenneth Branagh, 2007)

The Magic Flute (Kenneth Branagh, 2006)

Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)

The Space Children (Jack Arnold, 1958)

Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)

Piranha II: The Spawning (James Cameron, 1981)

Xenogenesis (James Cameron, 1978)

The Toughest Gun in Tombstone (Earl Bellamy, 1958)

Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)

The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)

Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010)

Mr. Nobody (Jaco Van Dormael, 2009)

Rachel, Rachel (Paul Newman, 1968)

Four Rooms (Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, 1995)

John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)

The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)

8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015)

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (Alex Gibney, 2015)

The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie, 1965)

Twenty Minutes of Love (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Caught in the Rain (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

A Busy Day (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Her Friend the Bandit (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Mabel’s Married Life (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Laughing Gas (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

The Property Man (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Going My Way (Leo McCarey, 1944)

The Bells of St. Mary's (Leo McCarey, 1945)

The Face on the Bar Room Floor (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

Recreation (Charlie Chaplin, 1914)

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

The Monster That Challenged the World (Arnold Laven, 1957)

Fantastic Four (Josh Trank, 2015)

Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli, 1968)

Funeral in Berlin (Guy Hamilton, 1966)

Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)

Billion Dollar Brain (Ken Russell, 1967)

Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)

Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

All This, and Heaven Too (Anatole Litvak, 1940)

Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)

Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)

                                                                        

Genres

Best Picture Nominees: 21

Comedy: 32

Science Fiction: 31

Documentary: 25

Drama: 21

Crime: 19

Horror: 18

Espionage: 14

Action: 9

Animation: 8

Fantasy: 5

Musical: 5

Superhero: 4

Western: 4

Film Noir: 3

Martial Arts: 3

War: 3

Propaganda: 3

Sports: 3

Thriller: 3

Star Trek: 2

James Bond: 1

Top Directors

Charlie Chaplin: 9

Lloyd Bacon: 6

Justin Lin: 4

Mark Robson: 4

Paul Thomas Anderson: 3

Kenneth Branagh: 3

James Cameron: 3

Hal Roach: 3

Steven Spielberg: 3

Jacques Tourneur: 3

Woody Allen: 2

Tim Burton: 2

Sam Firstenberg: 2

Ishiro Honda: 2

William Keighley: 2

Archie Mayo: 2

Leo McCarey: 2

Norman McLaren: 2

Vincente Minnelli: 2

Michael Powell: 2

Joseph Sargent: 2

Billy Wilder: 2

Robert Wise: 2

Films by Decade

1900s: 2

1910s: 12

1920s: 10

1930s: 20

1940s: 21

1950s: 29

1960s: 23

1970s: 14

1980s: 12

1990s: 9

2000s: 14

2010s: 49