Monday, January 27, 2025

Born on this day – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


Composer

January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791

Recommended reading - Silent Film's Last Hurrah (2023):


Silent Film's Last Hurrah

The Remarkable Movies of the Long 1928


By David Meuel.

Published by McFarland.
Published 2023.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 1476668957
ISBN-13: 978-1476668956

Description:

Meuel’s latest book marks a specific, prolific time in silent-film history that signaled the end of an era as Hollywood transitioned to sound. This title covers films from the end of 1927 to early 1929. Each chapter details a silent-film star or director and a renowned film of theirs from that period.... Meuel analyzes what made these films special and provides details about the stars’ personal lives and their other notable works.... Film-history fans will enjoy Meuel’s contextualization of some of the greatest silent films and biggest actors.... Great for libraries with lots of movie buffs, especially fans of silent films and classics, and for institutions with film studies programs.” – Library Journal.

This is a history and critical appreciation of an unusually fertile period for the production of great or near-great silent films: late 1927 through early 1929, in the midst of the tumult and upheaval of Hollywood's transition from silent to sound. The book offers in-depth looks at several of the best of these films and discusses the gifted artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Lillian Gish who helped bring them to life, even as the art they had taken to remarkable heights was about to be obliterated. It depicts some of the silent medium's most talented filmmakers and their efforts – in the face of inescapable technological change – to give their dying art a rousing last hurrah.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day – January 27:

International Holocaust Remembrance Day


January 27

In memory of all who died in the Holocaust.

Plato, on writing:


Writing is the geometry of the soul.

- Plato.

Sunday, January 26, 2025

On this day in television history – James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons: The Scandal Rags (2011):


James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons

Documentary.
Season 1. Episode 2.
Episode entitled: The Scandal Rags.
Released: January 26, 2011.
Series directors: Brian Coughlin, Gabe Torres, Brian Coughlin and Robert Kirk.

Cast:

James Ellroy, Jennifer Baute, Samuel Garza Bernstein, Cheryl Crane, Jarred Kjack, Phil LaMarr, Jerry Penacoli, Henry Scott, Lana Turner, Mike Walker.

On this day in movie history - Sliding Doors (1998):


Sliding Doors

directed and written by Peter Howitt,
was released in the United States on January 26, 1998.
Music by David Hirschfelder.


Cast:

Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Zara Turner, Douglas McFerran, Paul Brightwell, Nina Young, Virginia McKenna, Kevin McNally, Terry English, Paul Stacey, Peter Howitt, Joanna Roth, Neil Stuke, Theresa Kartell, Evelyn Duah, Linda Broughton, Charlotte Fryer, Pip Miller, Christopher Villiers, Merryn Jones, Ella Jones, Julie McDowell, David Burrows-Sutcliffe, Carlton Jarvis, Jeremy Caleb Johnson, Barry Lee-Thomas, Tim Packham, Alexander Reid, Vivienne Soan.

On this day in movie history - What Happened Was… (1994):


What Happened Was…

directed and written by Tom Noonan,
was released at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States on January 26, 1994.
Music by Tom Noonan (credited as Ludovico Sorret).


Cast:

Karen Sillas and Tom Noonan.