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Nepo babies have been around as long as there have been artists. The idea of a "legacy" is one we humans simply cannot get away from. As storytelling beings, we will have always constructed -- and will continue to construct -- broad, historical, intergenerational narratives for ourselves. We can't stop tracing our professional and personal origins among the ancients, and writing their stories directly into our own. We simply shed our fascination with the possibility that talents can be passed from one generation to the next. 

That's certainly the case in Hollywood, a relatively recent art institution in human history, but still rife with its own multigenerational legacies. It's likely you read the headline above and instantly thought of the Coppola clan. The Coppola family has, as of this writing, accrued 12 Oscar wins and 40 nominations between them, and they currently hold the record for the family with the most members to be nominated for Oscars.

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***"Would you recognize Milton Berle without his mother? No!" So says the man himself, Milton Berle, in Over My Dead Body (1942), a fairly shoddy reminder that Berle was, for now-inexplicable reasons, a movie star in the early forties. But while some talent from radio and vaudeville slid into cinema with the ease of the proverbial buttered eel, Berle somehow got lodged halfway down cinema's throat, for reasons which may tell us something about classical Hollywood filmmaking, and something about this particular clown.Fox tested Berle on...

Just 15 days til Oscar. Here's Cláudio Alves on a 15 time nominee...

When we think of Hollywood royalty, our mind tends to go to those dynasties of movie stars or celebrity directors -- families like the Barrymores, the Hustons, the Fondas or the Coppolas. But not every tinsel town lineage is made up of those who sit on the director's chair or dazzle in front of the cameras.

The Newmans are a good example. With more than 90 collective nominations and many wins, they're the Academy Awards' most beloved family. Alfred Newman is the most Oscar-winning composer of all-time with a total of 43 nods and 9 victories. His son David Newman is a one time nominee and his brother, Lionel Newman, won the Oscar for adapting the score of Hello Dolly! and received 10 additional nominations. Emil Newman, another brother, was nominated for the score of 1941's Sun Valley Serenade. Their nephew, Randy Newman,...

Sundance 2019: ‘Sonja: The White Swan’Review by Peter BelsitoSonja Henie (8 April 1912–12 October 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star.

She was a three-time Olympic Champion(1928, 1932, 1936) in Ladies’ Singles, a ten-time World Champion (1927–1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931–1936). Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies’ figure skater.

At the height of her acting career, Sonja Henie was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood and starred in a series of box-office hits, including Thin Ice (1937), My Lucky Star (1938), Second Fiddle (1939) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

When the Norwegian figure skater arrived in Hollywood, she was a talent the industry had never seen before, or since — a three-time Olympic ladies’ singles champion (a record she continues to hold) whose chipper, if chilly romantic comedy hits kept Twentieth Century-Fox solvent in the build-up to World War II, in part because she phoned up her pal Joseph...

This article marks Part 3 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1941 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Out of the Silence” from “All-American Co-Ed”

“Blues in the Night” from “Blues in the Night

“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company” from “Buck Privates”

“Baby Mine” from “Dumbo”

“The Last Time I Saw Paris” from “Lady Be Good”

“Dolores” from “Las Vegas Nights”

“Be Honest with Me” from “Ridin’ on a Rainbow”

“Chattanooga Choo Choo” from “Sun Valley Serenade”

“Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye” from “You’ll Never Get Rich”

Won: “The Last Time I Saw Paris” from “Lady Be Good”

Should’ve won: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” from “Buck Privates...

Los Angeles, Calif. (October 2, 2015) – In 1915 William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation and forever changed the course of cinema. Over the next century the studio would develop some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in the history of cinema; the introduction of Movietone, the implementation of color in partnership with Eastman Kodak, the development of the wide format in 70mm and many more. Now in honor of the 100th anniversary of the studio, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will celebrate by releasing some of their most iconic films that represent a decade of innovation.

Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...

The cinema hasn't done skiing many favours. The films made in the 1920s by German producer Dr Arnold Fanck – culminating in White Ecstasy starring Leni Riefenstahl in 1931, must have put bums on seats and boots on skis – and Sun Valley Serenade (1941) was popular enough to have filled some rooms at the Sun Valley Lodge, where the film is shown in 24-hour rotation on in-room TVs. But apart from Downhill Racer – a proper film with a proper director (Michael Ritchie) and stars (Robert Redford, Gene Hackman) made in 1969 – nothing on the big screen has given skiing cause to celebrate. On the contrary, things have been going downhill since 1969.

A few years ago the Austin Film Society showed the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade as part of an anniversary series. Usually the programming director introduces the films, but this time it was one of the founders of Afs, Richard Linklater. This was a side of Mr. Linklater that I had not previously seen: the film buff who wants to tell you some interesting things about an obscure romantic comedy that isn't available on DVD. For the most part, this is a goofy featherweight movie about a big band that decides to adopt a little WWII orphan for publicity purposes ... who turns out to be Sonja Henie. They all end up in the Sun Valley resort in Idaho and hilarity ensues. The Glenn Miller Orchestra is the big band in question, which adds a bit of swing to the proceedings.

But Linklater told us that the most fascinating part of the...