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	<title>Alternative Film Guide</title>
	<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog</link>
	<description>thinking film</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:15:27 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>European Film Awards 2009: Rules &amp; Relevance</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Maria Heiskanen in Everlasting Moments

European Film Awards 2009 &#8211; Nominations: Part I
Among the eligible films and performers that failed to nab a mention were Giovanna Mezzogiorno for Vincere, Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel, Maren Ade&#8217;s Everyone Else, Ulrich Tukur for The White Ribbon, Martina Gedeck for The Baader Meinhof Complex, and Michael Fassbender for Fish Tank.
Also, Christian Petzold&#8217;s Jerichow, Nina Hoss for Jerichow, Jan Troell&#8217;s Everlasting Moments, Maria Heiskanen for Everlasting Moments, Corneliu Porumboiu&#8217;s Police, Adjective, Andrzej Wajda&#8217;s Sweet Rush, and Philippe Lioret&#8217;s Welcome.
Now, the curious thing about the European Film Awards  is that the awards&#8217; timing and eligibility rules (some of which have varied throughout the years) make many of the nominations seem like old news. Indeed, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/2009-european-film-awards-nominees/</link>
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		<title>European Film Awards 2009: Nominations</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); Dev Patel, Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire (middle); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (bottom)

Six films are vying for the top prize at the 2009 European Film Awards. They are:

Andrea Arnold&#8217;s Fish Tank, about a teenager (best actress nominee Katie Jarvis) upset that her mother has found herself a new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender)
Stephen Daldry&#8217;s The Reader, a melodrama starring Kate Winslet as a former Nazi guard who believes that being illiterate is worse than being an accomplice to mass murder
Jacques Audiard&#8217;s A Prophet, a prison drama about a toughie (best actor nominee Tahar Rahim) fighting his way to the top of the world behind bars
Danny Boyle&#8217;s Slumdog Millionaire, about a young man (best actor [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/2009-european-film-award-nominations/</link>
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		<title>European Film Awards 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
2009 European Film Awards
2009 European Film Award nominations: Nov. 7, 2009
2009 European Film Award winners: Bochum, Germany, on Dec. 12, 2009
(&#34;*&#34; denotes the winner in each category)
&#160;



Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (middle); Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire (bottom)
&#160;

BEST EUROPEAN  FILM
Fish Tank, UK
  written and directed by Andrea  Arnold
produced by Kees Kasander &#38; Nick Laws 
Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the  Right One In), Sweden
  directed by Tomas Alfredson
  written by John Ajvide Lindqvist
  produced by John Nordling &#38; Carl Molinder
Un Prophète (A  Prophet), France
  directed by Jacques Audiard
  written by Jacques Audiard &#38; Thomas Bidegain based on an original  idea by [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/european-film-awards-2009/</link>
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		<title>Chicago Lesbian &amp; Gay Film Festival 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


Baby Jane by Billy Clift (top); Shirley Knight, Liz Jahren in Not Fade Away (middle); Homewrecker by Paul Hart (bottom)

Reeling 2009, this year&#8217;s edition of the Chicago Lesbian &#38; Gay International Film Festival, kicked off on Thu., Nov. 5, with a screening of Casper Andreas&#8216; The Big Gay Musical. 
Upcoming feature films include:

Billy Clift&#8217;s Baby Jane, a recreation of What Ever Happened with Baby Jane? starring real drag queens playing the two female leads &#8212; as opposed to Joan Crawford and Bette Davis playing drag queens playing the two female leads.
Florencia Manovil&#8217;s  romantic drama Fiona&#8217;s Script, about an insecure bisexual woman who reluctantly enters into a relationship with a ladies&#8217; tomboy.
Rob Williams&#8216; Make the Yuletide Gay, a family Christmas [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/gay/chicago-lesbian-gay-film-festival-2009/</link>
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		<title>AFI FEST 2009: THE LAST STATION, AFTER.LIFE</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti in The Last Station

AFI FEST 2009, Sat., Nov. 7 at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica.
AFI FEST 2009 comes to a close with the following screenings:

Michael Hoffman&#8217;s The Last Station, which is set near the end of Leo Tolstoy&#8217;s life, has been getting lots of Oscar buzz for its stars: James McAvoy as Tolstoy&#8217;s assistant; Helen Mirren as Tolstoy&#8217;s wife; and Christopher Plummer as the verbose author of the never-ending War and Peace.
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash&#8217;s Sweetgrass offers a look at sheepherding in Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth mountain range. Apart from the sheep and the high peaks, there&#8217;s no  connection to Brokeback Mountain.
Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar&#8217;s stop-motion [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/festivals/the-last-station-after-life-afi-fest-2009/</link>
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		<title>AFI FEST 2009 Awards</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009: Hollywood/Santa Monica, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2009
&#160;

Andrea Arnold&#8217;s Fish Tank focuses on a working-class teenager (Katie Jarvis) frustrated that her mother has found a new beau (Michael Fassbender); Javier Rebollo&#8217;s Woman Without Piano is a dramatic portrait of 24 hours in the life of a Madrid housewife (Carmen Machi); and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani&#8217;s Ajami (above) chronicles the day-to-day, anything-but-routine lives of several denizens of a tough neighborhood in Jaffa, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians are sworn to live in bloody disharmony.
&#160;
NEW LIGHTS COMPETITION AWARD WINNER

FISH TANK DIR: Andrea Arnold  UK

WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO (LA MUJER SIN PIANO) DIR: Javier Rebollo Spain/France

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
AJAMI DIR: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani Israel/Germany

AFI FEST 2009 NEW LIGHTS [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/afi-fest-2009-awards/</link>
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		<title>AFI FEST 2009: POLICE, ADJECTIVE; TO DIE LIKE A MAN</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues (top); Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 continues in a more compact version on Friday and Saturday at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica. There&#8217;ll be only four screenings per day, with the last one starting at 5:00 p.m.
The screening films on Friday, Nov. 6, are:

Japanese filmmaker Sabu&#8217;s Kanikosen, described as &#34;Sergei Eisenstein put into a blender with Busby Berkeley.&#34;
João Pedro Rodrigues&#8216; To Die Like a Man, a chronicle of a Lisbon drag queen who has been living as a woman for decades, but ends up meeting her maker as a man. Rodrigues is the director of the intriguing O Fantasma.
Jiri Barta&#8217;s stop-motion [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/festivals/police-adjective-to-die-like-a-man-afi-fest-2009/</link>
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		<title>Grace Kelly: TO CATCH A THIEF, THE SWAN</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Grace Kelly on TCM: Part I
Thanks to Kelly&#8217;s Oscar win, The Country Girl is interesting as a historical curiosity &#8212; it&#8217;s the sort of &#34;gutsy&#34; and &#34;realistic&#34; film adaptation of a  respected stage play that was very popular among the filmgoing elite of the 1950s (e.g., Tea and Sympathy, A Hatful of Rain), but that I generally find both lame and artificial. Bing Crosby&#8217;s drunk is about as convincing as Kelly&#8217;s frumpish housewife (a role that should have gone to original choice Jennifer Jones), but that didn&#8217;t prevent a number of Academy members from making sure Crosby, director George Seaton, and the film itself  received Academy Award nominations.  Seaton, in fact, did win an Oscar for his [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/actors/grace-kelly-to-catch-a-thief-the-swan/</link>
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		<title>Grace Kelly on TCM</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Stating the obvious:  most people take great pleasure in idealizing  their idols &#8212; which is why idols are idols. 
Whether we&#8217;re talking of gods, saints, prophets, or pop stars,  the process is pretty much the same: flaws are expunged, deeds that never took place are turned into (at times miraculous) facts,  the Pantheon of the Immortals becomes their abode following their earthly demise. (In some extreme cases &#8212; assorted gods, Elvis &#8212; the idol in question doesn&#8217;t die, period.)
Grace Kelly, Turner Classic Movies&#8217; Star of the Month, is one of the lofty ones now dwelling in the aforementioned Pantheon. True, the flesh-and-bood Philadelphia-born (Nov. 12, 1929) woman (nee Grace Patricia Kelly) may have been quite different [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/actors/grace-kelly-on-tcm/</link>
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		<title>AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN, THE SINGULARITY</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man (top); Steve Evets, Eric Cantona in Looking for Eric (bottom)

AFI FEST 2009 highlights on Thursday, Nov. 5:

Robert Barry Ptolemy&#8217;s The Singularity sounds fascinating: Futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses the just-around-the-corner impact of human technology, which has been growing exponentially. Imagine a world without death, hunger, disease. (Well, I&#8217;m assuming all those great things will happen if humans don&#8217;t self-destruct first. After all, all lab studies indicate that human imbecility is growing even faster than the species&#8217; technological advances &#8212; talk about a scientific paradox; someone should come up with a documentary about that.)
Directed by Tom Ford, A Single Man stars Venice 2009 winner Colin Firth, who&#8217;ll quite likely receive an Oscar nod come [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/festivals/a-single-man-the-singularity-afi-fest-2009/</link>
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		<title>AFI FEST 2009: THE ROAD, EASIER WITH PRACTICE</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road (top); Brian Geraghty in Easier with Practice (bottom)

Tonight, Wed., Nov. 4, at AFI FEST 2009 in Hollywood:

The Road has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz for star Viggo Mortensen, director John Hillcoat, and for the film itself, a futuristic father-son adventure drama set in a post-apocalyptic world.
In Eduardo Coutinho&#8217;s documentary Moscow, the director of a theater group in Brazil&#8217;s third largest city sets out to stage a production of Chekhov&#8217;s Three Sisters.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez&#8217;s Easier with Practice sounds like an unusual road movie, one in which a book author (Brian Geraghty) traveling with his brother (Kel O&#8217;Neill) becomes emotionally attached to a sexy voice on the phone. Could his brother have something [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/festivals/the-road-easier-with-practice-afi-fest-2009/</link>
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		<title>Academy Awards $450,000 to US Film Festivals</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
True/False Film Fest

In case you think the Academy only hands out Oscars:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and  Sciences&#8216; Academy Foundation has awarded a total of $450,000 to 24 U.S. film festivals for the 2010  calendar year. Recipients range from Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival to the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival and the True/False Film Fest. 
Two festivals, the Nashville Film Festival and the  New Orleans Film Festival, are in the second year of a three-year grant  worth  $75,000. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and  the Virginia Film Festival are  receiving the  third and final annual installment of another [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/festivals/academy-awards-450000-to-us-film-festivals/</link>
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		<title>Oscar-Winning Filmmakers Mark Jonathan Harris, Tracy Seretean at Academy Screening</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Into the Arms of Stranger: Stories of the  Kindertransport, shown as part of the &#34;Oscar&#8217;s Docs&#34; series, at the    Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood on Monday,  November 2, 2009. 
Pictured above following the screening (left to  right): Composer Lee Holdridge, Oscar-winning producer Deborah  Oppenheimer, Oscar-winning writer/director Mark Jonathan Harris, editor Kate Amend and associate producer Alicia Dwyer.
 Photos: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Oscar-winning producer/director Tracy Seretean, whose Big Mama was also screened at the Linwood Dunn on Nov. 2. 

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/photos/mark-jonathan-harris-tracy-seretean-photos/</link>
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		<title>Real Horrorshow! Event Photos</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
&#34;The Sound Behind the Image III: Real Horrorshow!,&#34; presented by the  Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences&#8216; Science and Technology Council, which focused on the role of sound in  horror films from its beginning through the  digital age, took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on  Thursday, October 29, 2009.
 Pictured above  at the reception before the  event: (seated left to right) foley artist John Post, Academy  governor/supervising sound editor Don Hall, Oscar-winning sound mixer  Gene Cantamessa, (standing left to right) Barry Weiss, chairman of  Public Programs and Education for the Science and Technology Council,  sound editor Lou Kleinman, Oscar-winning sound editor Richard Anderson,  Oscar-winning [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/photos/real-horrorshow-event-photos/</link>
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		<title>Shadows of Russia Schedule</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate

Below is the complete &#34;Shadows of Russia&#34; schedule on Turner Classic Movies:

Wednesday, Jan. 6
Part One:   Twilight of the Tsars
8  p.m.              The Scarlet Empress (1934)  – starring Marlene Dietrich and John Lodge.
10  p.m.            Rasputin and the Empress (1932) –  starring John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore.
Part Two:  Red  Romance
12:15 a.m.       Red Danube (1949) – starring Walter Pidgeon and Ethel Barrymore.
2:30  a.m.         Reds (1981) – starring Warren Beatty, Diane [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/shadows-of-russia-schedule/</link>
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		<title>Shadows of Russia: Communism on TCM</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (top); Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford in The Way We Were (bottom)

From the  Romanovs&#8217; last stand to Warren Beatty&#8217;s first solo directorial effort: On every Wednesday in January 2010, Turner Classic Movies  will present the 20-film festival &#34;Shadows of Russia,&#34;  a showcase of Hollywood movies portraying Russia (and/or the Soviet Union) and the sociopolitical reverberations of Communism throughout the 20th century.
Among the scheduled films are classics such as Ninotchka, The Manchurian Candidate, and Reds, in addition to lesser-known fare like Counter-Attack, I Was a Communist for the FBI, and The Strawberry Statement. Get ready for some laughs and a few tears &#8212; mostly laughs. And mostly of the unintended kind.
I must red-facedly [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/shadows-of-russia-communism-tcm/</link>
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		<title>Oscar 2010: Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin to Host Oscar Telecast</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Steve Martin in The Pink Panther 2

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will act as co-hosts at the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony, Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman have announced.
Steve Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th Academy Awards shows, earning an Emmy nomination for the first stint. He has also served as a presenter several times, most recently at the 2009 Oscar ceremony in February, when he shared the stage with Tina Fey. (Theirs was a very clever bit. Tina Fey, in fact, would have been an ideal Oscar co-hostess.)
Alec Baldwin was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for his supporting role in The Cooler. 
The  2010 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/steve-martin-alec-baldwin-oscar-2010-telecast/</link>
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		<title>The Movies&#8217; Top Five Scariest Living Dead</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
In The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment not only sees dead people, he hears them as well. Bruce Willis, for his part, sees and hears what he wants to see and hear.

The Day of Dead ended on this meridian  about five hours ago. But the Night of the Dead is still here. It isn&#8217;t quite midnight, yet. (It wasn&#8217;t; it took me longer to write this post than I expected. Even so, it isn&#8217;t midnight in Hawaii, yet.)
In honor of this Christianized pagan holiday &#8212; the pagans came up with some of the most important Christian holidays &#8212; below is my list of the movies&#8217; Top Five Scariest Living Dead. By that I don&#8217;t mean actors, characters, or real-life [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/movies-top-five-scariest-living-dead/</link>
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		<title>THE WAR GAME Review II</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
THE WAR GAME Review: Part I

Given the spate of nuclear Armageddon films made in the  1960s (e.g., Fail Safe, Planet of the Apes) and up through the early 1980s television production The Day After, it’s  remarkable how such a low-budget effort like The War Game retains its  effectiveness when almost all other films on the topic seem corny. It’s likely  that the timeless effectiveness of Watkins&#8217; film is  the very reason it was banned for  nearly two decades. Scenes of British police shooting civilians were probably deemed too disturbing. Worse yet, the film’s realistic feel and unflinching look at the total  inability of the U.K. government to protect its citizens from a nuclear [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-war-game-review-ii/</link>
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		<title>THE WAR GAME d: Peter Watkins</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The War Game  (1965)
Direction and Screenplay: Peter Watkins
Narration: Michael Aspel and Peter Graham
&#160;

&#160;

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
For anyone who  thinks that those 50-pack mega-DVD sets of public domain films put out by  several different video companies are worthless, I would argue that the amount of  films you get for the money is worth it, even if all were mediocre, and that the  truth is:  each DVD package will come with at least 8-10 enjoyable films, a  few true classics like Carnival of Souls or Night of the Living Dead,  and every so often a great little film will pop up that makes  the package a total steal.
One such 50-pack I  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/reviews/the-war-game-peter-watkins/</link>
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		<title>RICH MAN&#8217;S FOLLY &#8211; George Bancroft, Frances Dee</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Rich Man&#8217;s Folly (1931)
Direction: John Cromwell
Screenplay: Grover Jones and Edward E. Paramore Jr.; from Charles Dickens&#8217; novel Dombey and Son
Cast: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, David Durand, Juliette Compton, Dorothy Peterson
&#160;

Directed by the respected John Cromwell and based on Charles Dickens&#8216; Dombey and Son, Rich Man&#8217;s Folly features George Bancroft as a ruthless, egotistical shipping tycoon whose only concern is his work, all the while  grooming his young son so he&#8217;ll one day take over the family business. In the meantime, the rest of family is completely ignored. 
 That is the kind of role Bancroft did best: Larger-than life, driven, and arrogant men who usually meet a towering, humbling defeat in the final reel. Also in the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/rich-mans-folly-george-bancroft-frances-dee/</link>
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		<title>THE PONY EXPRESS &#8211; Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The Pony Express (1925)
Direction: James Cruze
Screenplay: Walter Woods; from Woods and Henry James Forman&#8217;s story
Cast: Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, George Bancroft, Ernest Torrence, Wallace Beery, Al Hart
&#160;

The Pony Express is a  rousing James Cruze Western depicting the founding of the Pony Express with a backdrop of political ambitions concerning a senator&#8217;s plans to get California to secede from the United States so he can build his own empire. 
A great cast and Cruze&#8217;s direction keep this one interesting &#8212; even though Ricardo Cortez in a period film seems woefully out of place and pretty Betty Compson&#8217;s role is more or less that of an ingenue,  merely requiring her to look good while reacting  to the things going [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-pony-express-betty-compson-ricardo-cortez/</link>
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		<title>THE APARTMENT ABOVE d: Leon Trystan</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Pietro Wyzej / The Apartment Above (1937)
Direction: Leon Trystan
Screenplay:  Emanuel Schlechter, Ludwik Starski, Eugeniusz Bodo 
Cast: Eugeniusz Bodo, Helena Grossówna, Józef Orwid
&#160;

&#160;

Leon Trystan&#8217;s Pietro Wyzej (alternately known in the US as The Apartment Above, Neighbors, and The Neighbor from the Next Floor) is a delightful Polish comedy about two men &#8212; one older (Józef Orwid),  the other younger (Eugeniusz Bodo) &#8212; who happen to have the same name.
The two live on opposite floors of the same apartment building and have an acrimonious relationship. The younger man is a radio announcer and the leader of a swing orchestra; the older man is a classical musician. A string of zany misunderstandings and mistaken identities ensues when the older man&#8217;s niece [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-apartment-above-eugeniusz-bodo/</link>
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		<title>THE RAVEN &#8211; Henry B. Walthall &#8211; d: Charles Brabin</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The Raven (1915)
Direction: Charles Brabin
Screenplay: Charles Brabin; from George Cochran Hazelton&#8217;s novel and play The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe 
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Warda Howard
&#160;

Starring Henry B. Walthall, The Raven is an  Essanay feature depicting the life of Edgar Allan Poe, starting with his childhood and going all the way to his marriage to his cousin (played by the little-known Warda Howard). 
Charles Brabin&#8217;s direction is uneven: At some points it&#8217;s stagy and rudimentary;  at other points, Brabin  creates some remarkably striking and eerie visual effects, including a bravura scene for Walthall in which he descends further and further into madness following the death of his wife. Brabin visualizes this with a barrage [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-raven-henry-b-walthall/</link>
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		<title>Doha Tribeca Film Festival Awards 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Team Qatar by Liz Mermin (top); Hiam Abbass in Najwa Najjar&#8217;s Pomegranates and Myrrh (bottom)

Doha Tribeca Film Festival Executive Director Amanda Palmer and Robert De Niro handed out two audience awards, worth US$50,000 each, at the festival&#8217;s closing night gala on Nov. 1. Coincidentally, both winning films  were directed by women.
British filmmaker Liz Mermin&#8217;s documentary Team Qatar, which chronicles the creation of that country&#8217;s first debate team, was awarded Best Festival Film, while Palestinian Najwa Najjar&#8217;s debut feature, Pomegranates and Myrrh (talk about a poetic title), was chosen the Best Arab Film.
Starring Hiam Abbass (who deserves a best actress Oscar nod for Lemon Tree), Pomegranates and Myrrh revolves around a Palestinian woman torn  between being faithful to her [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/doha-tribeca-film-festival-awards-2009/</link>
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		<title>2009 Fetish Film Festival Winners</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Flemish filmmaker Erik Lamens&#8216; SM-rechter / SM Judge (above) was chosen  the best narrative feature at the 2009 Fetish Film Festival, held in the northern German city of Kiel from Oct. 29-31.
Inspired by a true story, Lamens&#8217; SM Judge tells the story of Belgian judge Koen Aurousseau, who, as per Flanders Today, &#34;was accused of physical assault and incitement to prostitution&#34; in 1997. Following his conviction, Aurousseau found himself mired in a deep emotional and financial hole; his only source of support was his wife, Magda, the person who&#8217;d initially asked him to get involved in S&#38;M sex practices.
“I heard on TV the other day that this is &#8216;the  most controversial film of the year,&#8217; Lamens is quoted [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/2009-fetish-film-festival-winners/</link>
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		<title>M&#8217;LISS &#8211; Mary Pickford, Thomas Meighan</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
M&#8217;Liss (1918)
Direction: Marshall Neilan
Screenplay: Frances Marion; from Bret Harte&#8217;s story 
Cast: Mary Pickford, Thomas Meighan, Theodore Roberts, Tully Marshall, Charles Ogle, Monte Blue, Winifred Greenwood
&#160;

Mary Pickford, Thomas Meighan in M&#8217;Liss
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Directed by Marshall Neilan and written by Frances Marion &#8211; two frequent Mary Pickford collaborators &#8212; M&#8217;Liss is one of Pickford&#8217;s very best films. In this comedy-drama, Pickford plays a spirited and unruly mountain girl, that&#8217;s the M&#8217;Liss of the title, who falls in love with the new schoolteacher (Thomas Meighan) &#8212; who is later falsely accused of murder. 
Pickford, by then already a superstar, gives a sterling performance; she is ably supported by (future star) Thomas Meighan as the schoolteacher, as well as a fine collection of character actors including [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/mliss-mary-pickford-thomas-meighan/</link>
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		<title>Michael Jackson&#8217;s THIS IS IT Tops Box Office</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Sony Pictures’ Michael Jackson  documentary This Is It prevailed at  the North  American box office this weekend, with $21.3 million in ticket sales, according  to studio estimates Sunday. 
The Kenny Ortega-directed film  opened at 3,481 locations Wednesday, bagging $11.1 million in two days. The  domestic total of This Is It currently stands at a solid  $32.5 million.
Most of the film&#8217;s footage was shot in June 2009 at the Staples  Center in Los Angeles and The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. It includes scenes  drawn from hours of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage. 

At No. 2, Paramount’s sensational  hit Paranormal Activity generated another superb $16.5  million after expanding to 2,404 locations. That [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/box-office/michael-jackson-this-is-it-box-office/</link>
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		<title>THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL &#8211; Doris Kenyon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The Great White Trail (1917)
Direction: Leopold Wharton and Theodore Wharton
Screenplay: Gardner Hunting and Leopold Wharton 
Cast: Doris Kenyon, Paul Gordon, Richard Stewart, Thomas Holding, Louise Hotaling, Hans Roberts, Edgar Davenport
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Some films have &#34;everything except the kitchen sink&#34; as the saying goes. Well, the 1917 melodrama The Great White Trail has a plot that has everything and about three kitchen sinks as well, as it briskly makes its way from one improbable situation after another before everything is happily resolved in the final reel. 
Doris Kenyon plays a happy young wife and mother. When her irresponsible brother appeals to her for help, her husband (Paul Gordon) misunderstands the situation, believing her to be unfaithful. He turns  her out of the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/the-great-white-trail-doris-kenyon/</link>
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		<title>HER NIGHT OF ROMANCE &#8211; Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Her Night of Romance (1924)
Direction: Sidney Franklin
Screenplay: Hans Kräly 
Cast: Constance Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Jean Hersholt, Albert Grand, Robert Rendel
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Directed by Sidney Franklin and written by frequent Ernst Lubitsch collaborator Hans Kräly, Her Night of Romance is certainly on my list of top three favorite films at Cinesation 2009.
Constance Talmadge, whose extant films are hard to come by, is always a delightful comedienne. In Her Night of Romance, Talmadge  plays Dorothy Adams, a wealthy young woman who goes about in hideous disguises to ward off  fortune hunters  only interested in her money. Eventually, Dorothy meets and falls in love with an impoverished English Lord (Ronald Colman), who is mistaken for a doctor. The &#34;doctor&#34; goes along with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/classics/her-night-of-romance-constance-talmadge-ronald-colman/</link>
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