Portal:Film

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Introduction

An animated sequence showing a horse galloping, with a jockey on its back

Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, made by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878, is sometimes cited as the earliest film.

A film, also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, or photoplay, is a series of still images that, when shown on a screen, create the illusion of moving images. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed in rapid succession. The process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. A film is created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects.

The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art of filmmaking itself. The contemporary definition of cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere by the means of recorded or programmed moving images along with other sensory stimulations.

Featured article

Jabba the Hutt is a fictional character in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. He first appeared on film in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as an obese, slug-like alien. Jabba was originally portrayed by an immense latex puppet, but in other films he is a computer-generated image. The character's role in Star Wars is primarily antagonistic. He is a 600-year-old Hutt crime lord and gangster who employs a retinue of criminals, bounty hunters, smugglers, assassins, and bodyguards to operate his criminal empire. Jabba has a grim sense of humor, a bellicose laugh, an insatiable appetite, and an affinity for gambling, slave girls, and torture. The character was incorporated into the Star Wars merchandising campaign that corresponded with the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi. Jabba the Hutt's image has since played an influential role in popular culture, particularly in the United States. His name is used as a satirical literary device and a political caricature to underscore negative qualities such as morbid obesity and corruption.

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Selected image

Credit: Cinematographica

Filmstrip of one of the three Monkeyshines films produced by Thomas Edison's laboratory in 1889–90 for the early cylinder version of the Kinetoscope.

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Did you know...

...that Japanese producer Genjiro Arato exhibited his 1980 film Zigeunerweisen across Japan in a specially-built inflatable mobile dome after exhibitors refused to screen it, and the film went on to win 4 Japanese Academy Awards?

...that The Silent World, an Academy Award winning documentary film by Jacques Cousteau, was the first film to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color?

...that Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman film director of post-war France?

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News

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Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906–January 28, 1980) was an American film and television producer and showman. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman," he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film Mom and Dad, which was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em." His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.

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Christopher Walken is an Academy Award-winning American actor of stage and screen. Walken, a prolific actor, has spent more than 50 years on stage and screen, and has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, including A View to a Kill, At Close Range, The Deer Hunter, King of New York, Batman Returns and Pulp Fiction, as well as music videos by recording artists such as Madonna. Walken's early career began primarily in theatre and television, where he often played small roles with limited appearances. During these early stages of his career, Walken was credited as "Ken Walken" and later as "Ronnie Walken," until finally settling on "Christopher Walken." Walken began acting in films by 1969, and after a series of increasingly larger roles, won an Academy Award in 1978 as Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Deer Hunter. Since then, Walken has become a highly sought-after actor, typically performing in numerous films every year. Walken has been a primary character in two film franchises: as Gabriel the fallen angel in The Prophecy series, and as Jacob Witting in the made-for-television films based on Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall novels. Other notable roles include Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction, and Frank Abagnale Sr. in Catch Me if You Can. He is also co-producer of his film New Rose Hotel and also sing songs in some of his film including Puss in Boots and Hairspray, he also tries to work a jig (dance) into his movies. Christopher Walken also stars in some TV-Series and theater plays. Walken produced, wrote and directed a short film named Popcorn Shrimp, he also starred in another short film named Engine Trouble in 2002. His upcoming projects are Five Dollars a Day and The Lonely Maiden. He has been rumored for the upcoming films The Dirt and Kevin Approaches. His another film, Citizen Brando is in in-production. Some of his films are unreleased like Jungle Juice (2001).

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Selected quote

It's what I've chosen to do ... I like to see people jump out of their seats. In that sense, I'm as much of a whore as the vaudevillians were, and proud of it.

— Steven Spielberg

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