Films

The Third Man – Directed by Carol Reed 1949 Cinematography by Robert Krasker with Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli – The Third Man (1949) is a visually-stylish thriller – a paranoid story of social, economic, and moral corruption in a depressed, rotting and crumbling, 20th century Vienna following World War II. The striking film-noirish, shadowy thriller was filmed expressionistically within the decadent, shattered and poisoned city that has been sector-divided along geo-political lines.
The black and white, pessimistic film is one of the greatest British thrillers of the post-war era, in the best Alfred Hitchcock tradition, and beautifully produced and directed by Britisher Carol Reed. It was voted the #1 British Film of the 20th Century by the esteemed British Film Institute (BFI). It was co-produced by Hungarian-born Alexander Korda and American movie mogul David O. Selznick. Because Korda gave American distribution rights to Selznick (who cut eleven minutes from the original British version), the credits of the US version include Selznick references.
This was Reed’s second collaboration with British screenwriter Graham Greene (after The Fallen Idol (1948)) – a clever and original mystery tale simply evoked by one sentence written by Greene: “I saw a man walking down the Strand, whose funeral I had only recently attended.” It told of a love triangle with nightmarish suspense, treachery, betrayal, guilt and disillusionment. Its two most famous sequences include the Ferris-wheel showdown high atop a deserted fairground with the famous cuckoo clock speech (written by Orson Welles), and the climactic chase through the underground network of sewers beneath the cobblestone streets. And the film once again teamed co-stars Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles of Citizen Kane (1941), in a tale of a foolishly-romantic, wimpy American writer (Holly Martins) of pulp westerns in occupied, post-WWII Vienna who tries to understand (and then decipher) the mysterious disappearance – vehicular accidental death and burial of an old school friend (Harry Lime) – who, unbeknownst to him, had become an exploitative, morally corrupt, and chilling black-market drug dealer and racketeer (of diluted penicillin), working out of the Russian zone. [From 1951-52, Welles starred in a spin-off radio show titled The Lives of Harry Lime, a syndicated 52 episode series based on the adventures of his character in this film - Joseph Cotten delivered the narration in the American release, delivering his own story = I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and [its] easy charm – Constantinople suited me better. I really got to know it in the classic period of the Black Market. [Boots, stockings, cigarettes, and watches exchange hands.] [They could get anything if people wanted it enough and had the money to pay.] We’d run anything, if people wanted it enough- mmm – had the money to pay. Of course, a [the] situation like that does tempt amateurs, but [of course, they don't last long, not really, not like professionals] you know they can’t stay the course like a professional. [A view of a dead body floating in an icy river.] Now the city – [A sign announces: "ENTERING THE AMERICAN ZONE."] it’s [is] divided into four zones, you know, each occupied by a power – [Views of signs of the British, Russian, and French zones.] the American, the British, the Russian, and the French. But the center of the city – that’s international, policed by an International Patrol, [A view of guard's duty being changed.] one member of each of the four powers. Wonderful. [You can imagine what a chance they had], What a hope they had, all of them strangers to the place and none [no two] of them could speak [speaking] the same language, except a sort of smattering of German. [Four guards in a jeep each represent their nationalities.] [Oh, they were] Good fellows on the whole, did their best, you know. [Views of bombed-out sites around Vienna.] Vienna doesn’t really look any worse than a lot of other European cities, bombed about a bit [a little, of course]. [Views of soldiers on guard, and then standing on parade and marching in a square.] Oh, I was gonna tell you, wait, I was gonna tell you about Holly Martins, an American. Came all the way here to visit a friend of his. The name is Lime, Harry Lime. Now Martins was broke and Lime had offered him some sort – I don’t know – some sort of a job. Anyway, there he was, poor chap, happy as a lark and without a cent. [Anyway, I was dead broke when I got to Vienna. A close pal of mine had wired me, offering me a job doing publicity work for some kind of charity he was running. I’m a writer, name’s Martins, Holly Martins. Anyway, down I came, all the way to old Vienna, happy as a lark and without a dime. by Tim Dirks

Duration : 0:6:53

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http://playingforchange.com/episodes/23/Peace_All_Over_The_World – We met Robert Bradley while shooting our first film, “Playing for Change: A Cinematic Discovery of Street Music.” Robert is originally from Detroit, Michigan, but we filmed this song in Los Angeles in front of a Playing For Change graffiti wall painted by a local artist. We had just finished a take of Robert singing “Playing For Change Blues,” a song we created while filming across America, and were beginning to interview him. All of a sudden he started speaking the lyrics to this song… We immediately grabbed another mic for his guitar, plugged it directly into the camera and asked him to perform it for us. Enjoy!

Sign up at http://playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content. You can also buy cool stuff in our online store!

Join the movement to help inspire people from around the world to come together through music.

Duration : 0:2:32

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http://www.x-tremevideo.com/comingsoon/index.cfm?ccs=79&cs=1007

Ionate films is proud to release it’s first freeride mountain bike film, shot entirely in full High Definition. The combination of spectacular downhill descents with breathtaking scenery spanning from the Swiss Alps to the Liguirian coasts, grants VIRTUOUS aesthetics which have been untapped by bike film makers until now.

Megavalence winner René Wildhaber or UCI World Cup Rider Samuel Zbinden show how to get busy off the race track.

Riders: René Wildhaber, Samuel Zbinden, David Kretz, Vinzenz Guntern, Sacha Robert, Adrian Fischer….

Music: Band Of Horses, Camera Obscura, As Friends Rust, The Herbaliser and many more…

Duration : 0:2:27

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Extended Trailer from 2008 Tribeca Premiere music documentary showcasing how a small group of independent filmmakers traveled the world in search of hope and inspiration through music, JOIN THE MOVEMENT at www.playingforchange.com…Help connect the world through music!

Duration : 0:3:11

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Jimi Hendrix Shotgun Live 1965 Night Train Backing Buddy & Stacey. Oldest Known Film Footage of Jimi Hendrix Playing Guitar On Nashville’s Channel 5
“WLAC-TV studios, L & C Tower, 159 4th Avenue North, Nashville
Jimi appears as a guitar player in “The Royal Company” playing in the back-up band for Buddy & Stacy on the WLAC-TV Channel 5 show “Night Train” performing “Shotgun”. On the same show Jimmy Church performs “In The Midnight Hour”, the Wilson Pickett version of the song was released in late June – early July. Billy Cox has said that Jimi left and returned to Nashville several times, this could have been one of those visits…
Please rate, and comment on this and the rest of my stuff. Whats a couple clicks out of your day? Add me to your friends and subscribe! I have a new page @ www.myspace.com/stratevatis
MUCH MORE TO COME
God bless and all the best
BK

Duration : 0:2:33

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Movie full uploaded by MGMDigitalMedia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upMtEJSj9NA

Any movie directed by 5 different people is bound to be confusing. This was, off course, no exception.

Orson Welles reportedly insisted on including magic tricks into his scenes, a possible source of the friction between him and Peter Sellers.

When Mata Bond swings into action, the background music is “Bond Street” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgvu1arJ9YI ) also scored by this film’s composer, Burt Bacharach. The real Bond Street can be seen in the later James Bond movie, Octopussy (1983).

Peter Sellers and Orson Welles hated each other so much that the filming of the scene where both of them face each other across a gaming table actually took place on different days with a double standing in for one the actors.

Peter Sellers often caused interruptions by leaving the set for days at a time.

The rift between Orson Welles and Peter Sellers was partly caused by the arrival on set of Princess Margaret, sister of the Queen. Sellers knew her of old and greeted her in an ostentatious manner to ensure all cast and crew noticed. However, the Princess walked straight past him and made a big fuss over Welles. Nonplussed, Sellers stormed off the set and refused to film with Welles again.

An enormous Taj Mahal-type set was designed for the film but never built. The real Taj Mahal can be seen in the later James Bond movie Octopussy (1983).

The gadget used by Le Chiffre to cheat at Baccarat was a pair of infra-red sunglasses with x-ray capabilities. X-ray sunglasses would also be seen in the later James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough (1999).

The West German street Feldmanstrasse seen in the film is a name parody of the film’s producer Charles K. Feldman. This is the location of the Mata Hari Dance & Spy School.

The first thing seen in the movie which is the graffiti seen on the Paris pisoir at the film’s beginning read: “Les Beatles”.

Orson Welles attributed the success of the film to a marketing strategy that featured a naked tattooed lady on the film’s posters and print ads.

A carpet beater can be seen hanging from the side of Orson Welles’s chair. This is a link to the original Casino Royale novel, in which Le Chiffre tortures Bond by thrashing his testicles with a carpet beater.

At least two gags involving Peter Sellers in this film later resurfaced in the Pink Panther films of the 1970s: a sight gag involving Sellers wearing a Toulouse Loutrec costume, and a joke involving a driver running away when being asked to “follow that car.” That man was Stirling Moss, one of the greatest race car drivers of all time.

The name for the organization SMERSH is derived from “Smiert Spionam” which means “death to spies”. “Smiert Spionam” is the the full phrase from which the acronym of the Soviet counterespionage organization SMERSH took its name. It existed as early as World War II, and was a branch of the NKVD (later KGB).

Le Chiffre is a French word which translates into English as “The Cypher” or “The Number”. Other translations in different languages include “Die Nummer”, “Herr Ziffer”, and “Mr. Number”.

In his first scene David Niven is seen bouncing up and down in a chair whose seat is fixed to what appear to be accordion bellows. This is a “chamber horse”, a home exercise machine that was popular in 18th-century Britain.

In the “vault” scene towards the end, Bond says, “Careful, it’s vaporized lysergic acid, highly explosive”. Lysergic acid is actually used in the synthesis of the hallucinogen LSD, and is not an explosive.

In the German spy school, Polo mentions some of the former students, among them Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre played Le Chiffre in the original, made-for-TV version of Casino Royale on “Climax!” (1954).

The Le Chiffre agent killed in a Berlin phone booth is played by Vladek Sheybal, who previously played an enemy agent in From Russia with Love (1963).

More: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/trivia

Duration : 0:2:37

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FRED ASTAIRE in SMOOTH CRIMINAL
Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron
Choreographed by Michael Kidd
‘Smooth Criminal’ by Michael Jackson
Video edited by CFJ

Here’s a high quality version of the video that I posted over a year ago. It was the first of my MJ trilogy videos, made on March 2008. It got about 450,000 views in 14 months.

I don’t know whether MJ had ever watched this, but I wished that he would see it on YouTube and just smile… which would be definitely my biggest pleasure.

Some things I wanted to say by this video are:

1) Fred Astaire was such a great dancer and he could dance beautifully to every type of music… even to a MJ song.

2) MJ is not an originator but such a great successor who inherits various musical legacies and creates his own things.

We must always learn the history.
And now, the next generation must go on just like him.

May you dance in peace with Astaire, MJ.
I will adore you, always.

Fred Astaire in Smooth Criminal (LQ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gB0UNey-Uk
The following is the original description I wrote for the video.
————————————-

I love both Astaire and Michael Jackson. I want young people to know Astaire stuff, that is why I made this. The video features scenes from the Girl Hunt ballet in The Band Wagon (1953) starring Astaire and Cyd Charisse (those supreme legs!! The most perfect body a woman could have. So sensual, so elegant), to which MJ gave homage in his Smooth Criminal vid (also in a performance of Get Happy on the Jacksons show in the 70s as well as You Rock My World in 2001), and, as an intro, a sequence from Daddy Long Legs (1955) featuring Leslie Caron (in motion pictures, you mustn’t put a coin into a jukebox in an ordinary way!).

My initial idea was using also Yolanda And The Thief (1945) where Astaire appeared with the same costume, a white suit, hat and a blue shirt, but I eventually omitted it.

Michael Kidd worked with Janet in the Alright vid in 1990, featuring Cyd Charisse (in the red dress!), the Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway.

If you want to see Astaire at the top of his game, watch his ’30s and early ’40s films.
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The other two of my MJ trilogy videos:
Origins of the Moonwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZcLWAmdco
West Side Story (Somebody Call Michael mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIWTrFVEnaU

Fred Astaire + Robert Palmer – Let’s Face The Music And Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWCijZ-A54M

Duration : 0:7:33

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http://playingforchange.com – Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is a story of hope, struggle, perseverance and joy. Directors Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls, along with the Playing For Change team, traveled the globe with a single minded passion to connect the world through music. Their ambitious journey took them from post-apartheid South Africa, through the ancient sites of the Middle East, to the remote beauty of the Himalayas and beyond. Using innovative mobile technology, they filmed and recorded more than 100 musicians, largely outdoors in parks, plazas and promenades, in doorways, on cobblestone streets and amid hilly pueblos. Each captured performance creates a new mix in which essentially the artists are all performing together, albeit hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is the story of this unparalleled international musical collaboration and its remarkable power of redemption.

Duration : 0:1:25

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57th – Most Discussed (All Time) – Pets & Animals – Global
Info-Copyright 2007 Reuters.
Video- ITV News Wednesday January 24-2007 A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is about 2,000 feet under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a “living fossil” because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.

“We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare,” said an official at the park. “They live between 1,968 and 3,280 feet (600 and 1,000 meters) under the water, which is deeper than humans can go.”

“We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters,” the official said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters.
Video- ITV News Wednesday January 24-2007

More info about this shark at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_shark

Duration : 0:1:30

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57th – Most Discussed (All Time) – Pets & Animals – Global
Info-Copyright 2007 Reuters.
Video- ITV News Wednesday January 24-2007 A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is about 2,000 feet under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a “living fossil” because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.

“We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare,” said an official at the park. “They live between 1,968 and 3,280 feet (600 and 1,000 meters) under the water, which is deeper than humans can go.”

“We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters,” the official said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters.
Video- ITV News Wednesday January 24-2007

More info about this shark at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_shark

Duration : 0:1:30

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