Category Archives: Movies

Archive.org Movies

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It’s somewhat amazing what one can find in the Archive.org site these days. Lately I’ve been stumbling on full movies. Here are some examples (subject to changes and additions):

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, 1927
Man With a Movie Camera, 1929
Harvey, 1950
The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014

Akira Kurosawa:
Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai), 1954
The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru), 1960

(Tony Zhou, “The Bad Sleep Well (1960) – The Geometry of a Scene”)
(Tony Zhou, “Akira Kurosawa – Composing Movement”)
(Tony Zhou’s “Every Frame a Painting” account on YouTube)

How to not make money in the movies

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The title says it all: “How Zyzzyx Road only grossed $30.00.”
TL;DR —

Zyzzyx ran for seven days at Dallas’ Highland Park Village Theater, with a single screening each day at noon. When it closed, exactly six people had gone to see it, for a total gross of, yes, $30.

I was talking to a friend who works intricately in entertainment, and they say this wouldn’t be regarded as “released” today (unlike its 2006 run) as one now needs a minimum of 10 theaters. Possibly because of this film. So it’s unlikely ever to be… well, “surpassed” seems the wrong word. “Displaced”? — from this curious record.

“It’s my manner, sir.”

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Lexicon. Only mine. From the movie Lawrence of Arabia:

Lawrence: Good morning, sir.
General Murray: Salute! (Lawrence salutes, in an offhand gesture) If you’re insubordinate of me, Lawrence, I shall put you under arrest!
Lawrence: It’s my manner, sir.
General Murray: (flatly) Your what?
Lawrence: My manner, sir. It looks insubordinate, but it isn’t, really.
General Murray: You know, I can’t make out whether you’re bloody bad-mannered or just half-witted.
Lawrence: I have the same problem, sir.

“Of all the gin joints in all the world…”

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Lexicon. From the movie Casablanca. Once, I would have thought this was such a widely seen film I wouldn’t need to explain, but as the years go by, even societal memory fades.

Like many quotes from this movie, somewhat mangled. It should be, “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world… she walks into mine.” The towns, alas, get dumped.

Usage: Something incredibly rare and unexpected happens.

“My god!”
”What?”
”That car that just cut us off, like an asshole?”
”Yeah?”
”It’s a Bugatti Veyron.”
(respectful pause) “Of all the gin joints, in all the world…”