Phil Hall’s 25 Most Important Corporate-Sponsored Films
At Film Threat: Phil Hall has posted an excerpt from his book The History of Independent Cinema, listing the 25 most important corporate-sponsored films of all time.
Among those listed are:
The Yanks Are Coming (1918). "The Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. produced this feature-length film about its de Haviland DH-4 aircraft, which was used by the U.S. Army Air Service in World War I. … [A government agency later tried to have the film withdrawn from circulation,] marking the first time the federal government tried to get a film banned."
Goodbye, Mr. Germ (1940). "The National Tuberculosis Association produced this two-reeler that mixed animation and actors in a fanciful tale of a doctor who cures a child [...]
by Andre Soares | November 24, 2009
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Tags: Benjy, Classic Movies, Documentaries, Film Threat, Fred Zinnemann, Goodbye Mr. Germ, Louisiana Story, Phil Hall, Shorts, The History of Independent Cinema, The Yanks Are Coming
Phill Hall on THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA III
Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Phil Hall Interview: Part I
Phil Hall Interview: Part II
What have been the top foreign influences on American independent filmmaking?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the European avant-garde films of the 1920s were a huge influence on U.S. underground filmmakers. The Italian neo-realism in the post-World War II era had a strong impact, primarily because it enabled filmmakers to adopt an obvious low-budget approach — with the caveat that the film was appropriately gritty enough to warrant the glamour-free style.
The 1962 Italian feature Mondo Cane helped to inaugurate the shockumentary filmmaking school that is still with us. More recently, the Dogme school of filmmaking had a flurry of [...]
by Andre Soares | May 26, 2009
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Tags: American Independent Cinema, Books, Classic Movies, Interviews, Mondo cane, Phil Hall, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The History of Independent Cinema
Phil Hall Interview II
Mary Pickford, one of the first major independent producers, and screenwriter Frances Marion
Phil Hall Interview: Part I
The History of Independent Cinema. I’m assuming that refers to US-made films. Even so, that’s a lot of ground to cover. What sort of parameters did you have to use in order to condense that very long and very diverse history into one volume?
Clearly, I could not accommodate every independent film into the book. I decided to focus primarily on films and creative artists that made a significant contribution to the commercial and/or artistic development of film production and distribution. That helped to eliminate many obscure films and filmmakers from coverage.
There are two genres that were not pursued in depth. I opted not [...]
by Andre Soares | May 26, 2009
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Tags: Books, Classic Movies, David O. Selznick, Duel in the Sun, Interviews, Mary Pickford, Oscar Micheaux, Phil Hall, The History of Independent Cinema
THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA: Q&A with Phil Hall
"Independent film is a vast and varied territory, and Phil Hall’s remarkable book explores every inch of it with wit, intelligence, a sympathetic spirit, and a wide-open mind. Fresh discoveries and surprising revelations abound on every topic from Edison to Aronofsky, Anger to Warhol, the silent era to the Internet age. It’s hard to imagine a study more keenly in tune with one of cinema’s liveliest, most multifaceted fields.” — David Sterritt, Ph.D, chairman, National Society of Film Critics
The "remarkable book" in question is called The History of Independent Cinema, which, as the title implies, covers the century-long development of American filmmaking outside the big-studio lots. Published by BearManor Media, The History [...]
by Andre Soares | May 26, 2009
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Tags: Books, Classic Movies, Interviews, Jane Russell, Otto Preminger, Phil Hall, The Bootleg Files, The History of Independent Cinema, The Moon Is Blue, The Outlaw