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Tag: national film registry

  • ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Forbidden Planet’ Added to National Film Registry

    The U.S. Library of Congress today announced its annual selections for the National Film Registry. Each year 25 movies are selected to join the registry, which helps to preserve important films.

    This year’s selections are highlighted by such classics as Pulp Fiction and Mary Poppins. Other recognizable movies include Forbidden Planet, The Magnificent Seven, The Quiet Man, and Michael Moore documentary Roger & Me.

    Several silent films were also selected for inclusion in the registry, including Daughter of Dawn, A virtuous Vamp, and Ella Cinders. The inclusion of these older films, though important, could be viewed as bittersweet in light of a recent report estimating that 70% of all U.S. silent films have been lost forever.

    “The National Film Registry stands among the finest summations of more than a century of extraordinary American cinema,” said James Billington, Librarian of Congress. “This key component of American cultural history, however, is endangered, so we must protect the nation’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.”

    Films selected for the National Film Registry are named each year by the Librarian of Congress after consultation with film curators and the National Film Preservation Board. The movies must be at least 10 years old and be culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

    This year’s National Film Registry selections, in full:

    Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
    Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
    Cicero March (1966)
    Daughter of Dawn (1920)
    Decasia (2002)
    Ella Cinders (1926)
    Forbidden Planet (1956)
    Gilda (1946)
    The Hole (1962)
    Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
    King of Jazz (1930)
    The Lunch Date (1989)
    The Magnificent Seven (1960)
    Martha Graham Early Dance film (1931-44)
    Mary Poppins (1964)
    Men & Dust (1940)
    Midnight (1939)
    Notes on the Port of St. Francis (1951)
    Pulp Fiction (1994)
    The Quiet Man (1952)
    The Right Stuff (1983)
    Roger & Me (1989)
    A Virtuous Vamp (1919)
    Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)
    Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

  • “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” Preserved In National Film Registry

    “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, the 1961 film based on the book by Truman Capote, now has the distinction of being added to the National Film Registry at the Library Of Congress, where it joins new additions “A League Of Their Own”, “Dirty Harry”, and “A Christmas Story”.

    The NFR was created as a way to preserve films which have significance in American culture, boasting titles which range from the very old–1897’s “The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight”–to the very new, such as 1999’s “The Matrix”. But the films accepted aren’t necessarily those which found commercial success; this year, one of the items included a Kodak test film from 1922 that developers used to create new versions of color film.

    “Most every major Hollywood film from 1922 through the end of the silent era would have either a Kodachrome color sequence in it or Technicolor color sequence as a way of attracting audience interest,” said Pat Loughney, chief of the library’s audio visual preservation campus. “It’s a technical, historical achievement, but it’s important to the progress of inventive work that made motion pictures successful.”