2010 Kennedy Center Honors
December 29, 2010 by Post Team
2010 Kennedy Center Honors, (AP) – Darth Vader is Luke’s father claiming he Skywalker, John Travolta preening in his underwear and an early 20th century militant deaf people to communicate in sign language are among the images that will be preserved by the Library Congress under its National Film Registry.
The 25 films selected this year are “The Empire Strikes Back”, the sequel to the 1980 “Star Wars” that many critics and fans consider the best of George Lucas’ six “Star Wars” movies. “Empire” by shocked spectators the revelation that masked villain Darth Vader is the father of the hero of Skywalker.
While Lucas did not direct “Empire” – he told the late Irvin Kershner – he got another film selected for the register: the student short “Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB.” Lucas “Star Wars” and “American Graffiti” are also among the 550 titles in the register.
The Library of Congress announced the selection Tuesday morning. The purpose of the registry, which began in 1989, is not to identify the best films ever made, but also to preserve the films of artistic, cultural or historical.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington chose each film in the registry, the suggestions for reform by the National Film Preservation Board and the public. More than 2100 films have been nominated by the general public in 2010.
Original copies of films selected for the register are kept safe and available for consultation by future generations. The library acquires copies to keep in its vaults cold among millions of other records on the campus of the Packard Center National Audiovisual Conservation near Culpeper, Virginia
The film can deteriorate rapidly if improperly stored. About half the films produced before 1950 and 90 percent of those made before 1920 have been lost, “said Billington.
This year’s selections also include “Saturday Night Fever”, John Badham in 1977 disco musical starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, young working class known for its impressive moves on the dance floor at a nightclub in Brooklyn.
This is one of five selections from the 1970s. The others are Robert Altman’s revisionist western “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” the horror classic by William Friedkin “The Exorcist,””All the President’s Men, “adaptation of Alan J. Pakula “book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and” Grey Gardens “, a documentary about the eccentric family Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The selections date back to 1891, with one of the premiere films ever made: “Newark Athlete,” a short film of a young swing clubs, assistance for the year. The film was made at the Edison laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, by two pioneers of the cinema camera technology.
Another obscure title is 1913 the “preservation of sign language,” a film by George Veditz two minutes, one time president of the National Association of the Deaf United States. Veditz was one of first to make recordings of film in American Sign Language, and in the film, it strongly supports the right of deaf people to sign instead of speaking.
“It was a great revelation,” said Billington.
As before, the selections show the Library of Congress has a sense of humor. Two comedies – “Airplane!” disaster movie parody of 1980, and “Pink Panther” (1964), starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau clunky – have been exploited for conservation.
The most recent films have been selected “Study of a River,” an experimental film about the 1996 Hudson River, and “Malcolm X” by Spike Lee in 1992 biography of civil rights leader.
Documentaries selected this year include John Huston’s “Let There Be Light” (1946), the Pentagon prohibits public distribution for 35 years because of its frank representation of psychological trauma among veterans.
Although Billington enjoys popular films selected for the register, it takes more satisfaction to unearth lesser known titles with lasting meaning. He pushes the board to find examples of under-represented groups such as industrial films and abstract.
“The most interesting thing for me is not seeing something that I do list, but was educated by the list that comes out of this process,” he said.
On the Net:
National Film Registry: http://www.loc.gov/film
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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