Source: Daily Variety Magazine.
National Film Registry Adds 25 Pictures To Archive
By Nick Madigan
""Raiders Of The Lost Ark,"" ""Roman Holiday"" and ""The Wild Bunch"" are among 25 films to be added to he National Film Registry, where they will be preserved for all time. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington recently released the latest list, saying the 275 motion pictures now in the registry represent ""a stunning range of American filmmaking."" The oldest film on the new roster is the silent, black-and-white ""The Kiss,"" released in 1896 by Edison Manufacturing Co. with a cast of just two, May Irwin and John Rice. No running time is listed; instead, it is said to be ""50 feet"" in length. The most recent is Spike Leeís ""Do the Right Thing"" (1998), from Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks/Universal, with Danny Aiello, Ossie David and Ruby Dee. Other films on the list include, the seven-minute, Warner Bros. cartoon ""Duck Amuck"" (1953), directed by Chuck Jones, with Mel Blanc performing the voices for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny; Josef Von Sternbergís ""The Docks of New York"" (1928), from Famous Players Lasky/Paramount, with George Bancroft and Betty Compson; and George Romeroís ""Night of the Living Dead"" (1968)"", from Image Ten/Continental, with Judith OíDea and Russell Steiner. Big-hit choices include Steven Speilbergís ""Raiders"" (1981), from Paramount, with Harrison Ford and Karen Allen; William Wylerís ""Roman Holiday"" (1953), also from paramount, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn; and ""Wild Bunch"" (1969), from Warner Bros./Seven Arts, directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holded, Ernest Borgnine and Edmond OíBrien. Under the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress each year names 25 ""culturally, historically or aesthetically"" significant movies to the registry. The list includes Hollywood features, documentaries, avant-garde and amateur productions, films of regional interest, and ethnic, animated, and short film subjects. Urgent Effort The effort to preserve the films is also guided by urgency. Fewer than 20 percent of U.S. feature films from the 1920ís survive in complete form. Of the American features produced before 1950, only half survive. ""For shorts, documentaries, and independently produced works, we have no way of knowing how much has been lost,"" the Film Preservation Board says on its Web site. This yearís titles were chosen after the librarian evaluated more than 1,000 movies nominated by the public. Commitment Needed ""Sadly, our enthusiasm for watching films has proven far greater than our commitment to preserving them,"" Billington said. ""And, ominously, more films are lost each year ñ though the ravages of nitrate deterioration, color-fading and the recently discovered ëvinegar syndrome,í which threatens the acetate-based film stock on which the vast majority of motion pictures, past and present, have been preserved."" Once in the registry, films are safeguarded either through the Library of Congressí motion picture preservation unit in Dayton, Ohio or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion picture studios or independent filmmakers. The Library of Congress contains the largest collection of film and television in the world, from the earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture to the latest feature releases. This Yearís List Remaining films on the new list include: ""Civilization"" (1916), director Thomas Ince, with Herchel Mayall, Lola May; ""The Emperor Jones"" (1933), director Dudley Murphy, with Paul Robeson, Dudley Digges; ""Gunga Din"" (1939), director George Stevens, with Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ""In The Land Of The Head Hunters"" (aka ""In The Land Of The War Canoes"") (1914), director Edward S. Curtis; ""Jazz On A Summerís Day"" (1959), director Bert Stern, with Jimmy Giuffre Trio, Thelonious Monk, Chuck Berry; ""King: A Filmed Record . . . Montgomery To Memphis"" (1970), directors Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with narrators Paul Newman, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster; ""Kiss Me Deadly"" (1955), director Robert Aldrich, with Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker; ""Lambchops"" (1929), with George Burns, Gracie Allen; ""Laura"" (1944), director Otto Preminger, with Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price; ""Master Hands"" (1936), cinematographer Gordon Avilís documentary filmed at the Chevrolet plants in Flint, Michigan; ""My Man Godfrey"" (1936), director Gregory La Cava, with William Powell, Carole Lombard; ""The Plow That Broke the Plans"" (1936), director Pare Lorents; ""The Shop Around The Corner"" (1940), director Ernst Lubitsch, with Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart; ""A Streetcar Named Desire"" (1951), director Elia Kazan, with Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando; ""The Ten Commandments"" (1956), director Cicil B. DeMille, with Charleton Heston, Yul Brynner; ""Trance And Dance In Bali"" (1939), Gregory Bateson and Margaret Meadís anthropological footage of a Balinese ceremonial dance; and ""Woman Of The Year"" (1942), director George Stevens, with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn.