As an alternative to the current end-of-year lists here is a collection of film-related links to things that caught my eye during 2010.
The spectrum is pretty broad but ranges from the location of the crop-dusting sequence in North By Northwest, James Dean punching Ronald Regan, an unaired Orson Welles TV pilot (genius) and a graphic explaining Inception.
- iPad discussion on Charlie Rose: A roundtable talk with Walt Mossberg of the WSJ, David Carr of the NYT and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch about one of the gadgets of the year.
- Sam Neill as James Bond: Footage of the Australian actor doing a screen test for 007 back in the mid-1980s.
- Location of the Crop Dusting Sequence in North By Northwest: Check out where Hitchcock filmed one of his most famous sequences of Google Maps.
- Esquire’s profile of Roger Ebert: Chris Jones profiled the veteran film critic as he battles with cancer and connects with a new audience online.
- Steve Jobs and John Lasseter discuss Pixar in 1996: A Charlie Rose roundtable which makes for fascinating viewing in light of their subsequent success.
- Gordon Willis talks about The Godfather: The legendary cinematographer talks about his landmark work on The Godfather films.
- Alfred Hitchcock on Editing: Some wise words from Hitchon the art of film editing with special reference to Psycho (1960)
- Bernard Herrmann Radio Interview: An interesting radio interview with the man who scored Citizen Kane, Psycho and Taxi Driver.
- Why Letterbox is preferred over Fullscreen: A short video explaining why maintaining the original aspect ratio of a film is important.
- Francis Ford Coppola’s notebook for The Godfather: The director’s insanely detailed notebook is revealing of his passion for the film and maybe a key reason it turned out so well.
- YouTube Five Years On: A birthday promo which reminds us of the extraordinary journey the site has been on in the last five years.
- James Dean and Ronald Reagan in The Dark, Dark Hours: Video of James Dean and Ronald Reagan acting together in a live 1954 TV drama.
- Alfred Hitchcock Cameos: A montage of the director’s famous cameos.
- Henry Murals: Inspiring short documentary about artist Ryan Henry Ward painting a mural for an elementary school in Seattle
- Oliver Stone’s Last Year in Vietnam: The director talks about his 1971 student film.
- Write the Future: Three-minute ad for the World Cup directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
- David Lynch’s Lady Blue Shanghai: A handbag advert for Dior directed by Lynch, starring Marion Cotillard.
- People of the Exodus: Adam Curtis posts a fascinating documentary which had striking parallels with current events in the Middle East.
- James Cameron talks at D8: The director talks with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about the BP oil spill, the movie release window and re-releasing Titanic in 3D.
- Meet Marlon Brando: Hilarious footage of Brando doing a press junket in 1965 for Morituri.
- The Orson Welles Show: Hilarious clips from the unaired Orson Welles TV show from 1979, featuring Burt Reynolds, The Muppets and Angie Dickinson.
- Inception Timeline Graphic: A graphic by dehahs at DeviantART that visualises Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster.
- Batman logos in early Christopher Nolan films: Eeerie early glimpses of Batman in Following (1998) and Memento (2000).
- John Ford BBC interview from 1968: The famous director is hilariously grumpy and the interviewer is exceedingly posh.
- Ingmar Bergman on The Dick Cavett Show: An interview with the Swedish director from 1971
- Blade Runner Revisited >3.6 Gigapixels: An amazing short film from François Vautier inspired by Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic.
- The Atomic Studio: The story of the men who filmed atomic explosions during the Cold War.
- The Opening Titles of Seven: Matt Zoller Seitz and Aaron Aradillas have taken an in-depth look at the opening credits of Seven.
- Eric Stolz in Back to the Future: Video of the original Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
- Matthew Weiner talks Mad Men on KCRW: Lengthy interview with the creator of the best show on television.
- 31 Facts About Halloween: 31 facts about John Carpenter’s classic 1978 horror film
- Fear on Film Roundtable Discussion: A roundtable interview featuring John Landis, John Carpenter and David Cronenberg talking about horror films in 1982
- Charles Ferguson on CBS: The director of Inside Job discusses his documentary about the financial crisis with Katie Couric.
- Robert Downey Jr’s Volvo Ad: The Iron Man star appeared in a long form Volvo commercial directed by Stephen Frears.
- Anatomy of a Movie Poster: The different influences on the retro poster for The American.
- Memento Visualisations: Some interesting graphic visualisations of Christopher Nolan’s film by Density Design.
- Inception in Real-Time: Someone has edited together the heist in Inception so that it plays in real time.
- The Death of John Lennon: Archive footage of John Lennon’s death being reported on December 8th 1980
- Kinect meets Minority Report: A group at MIT has created a hand-detection system using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor device.
- The Sound of Black Swan: Soundworks reveal how the sounds of Black Swan were achieved.
- iSPEC by Joseph Kosinski: An incredible short film based on The Shining that demonstrated Joseph Kosinski’s early talent.
- The Legacy of Tron: How the New York Times saw the original Tron in 1982.
Any interesting links you’d like to share? Leave them below.
