Tag Archives: Cinema

A rare literary find and more stuff you need to see

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A papyrus of part of the Iliad has been discovered in a Roman-era tomb of mummies in Egypt. “The papyrus contains a passage from Book II of Homer’s Iliad, specifically the section known as the ‘Catalogue of Ships’…” from the … Continue reading →

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The Day of Homer

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by Nathanael West that offers a dark satirical look at the American Dream in the 1930s, focusing on the desperation and alienation of hopefuls on the fringes of the film industry, … Continue reading →

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from the screen to book cover

Posted on October 4, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Illustrator and designer Matt Stevens creates fanciful versions of pulp fiction book covers from films and TV shows that never originate as books. He imaginatively blends a variety of graphic styles and typography into book covers . Stevens began this … Continue reading →

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Top Secret

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The 1984 action comedy Top Secret! contains an odd sequence set in a Swedish bookstore. Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, and Peter Cushing acted the entire scene backward, and the filmmakers then reversed this performance to produce a dreamlike atmosphere in which … Continue reading →

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New York City is the best movie set in the world

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Texas-born filmmaker Jordan Studdard grew up with dreams of living in New York City. Now that he’s been there for seven years, he created an homage to his adopted hometown with a wall-sized map of the city, dotted with tiny … Continue reading →

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The Haunted Castle

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

In honor of the Halloween season, here’s the first horror film, Georges Méliès’ The Haunted Castle. Originally released in 1896, the year before Dracula was published, it had been thought to be lost until 1988, when a copy was discovered in the … Continue reading →

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Kubrick for Kids

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

One of the strangest episodes of film and book crossovers that I have every run across has to be this multimedia children’s book of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey for kids that came with an accompanying record or cassette tape. … Continue reading →

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Will the museum deserve an Oscar

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Film lovers won’t be able to visit in-person until the doors open to the public on  September 30, 2021, but new the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures  programming will soon be available online. The pre-opening program includes a screening of … Continue reading →

Posted in Animation, Architecture, Art, Film, History, Museums, Tourism, USA | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Yes We Cannes

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Brian D. Butler
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Bring Your Own Popcorn

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

On the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, just outside of the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, hidden at the base of a desert mountain range, sits an odd sight : hundreds of seats for an outdoor movie theater. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Middle East, movies, Photography, Tourism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments