Born Jan. 3, 1905, in Los Angeles' Chinatown, Wong played the lead role in the first Technicolor feature, The Toll of the Sea, in 1922, when she was just 17. By 19 she was intriguing against the movies' top action star, Douglas Fairbanks, in his super-production The Thief of Bagdad. At 23 she went to Europe, where she starred in a half-dozen A pictures - including her best one, E.A. Dupont's Piccadilly - and, when sound films arrived, performing roles in three languages: English, German and French.

" The Scent Of Oak " spearheads 1st Travalling Carribbean Film Showcase : April 14-18 at Unesco, Paris.

This new travelling film showcase from the Caribbean region, chaired by Cuban filmmaker, Rigoberto Lopez, at Unesco, recently showed a selection of features and shorts chosen among 21 participating Caribbean countries.

A new short documentary Transformation, shot in Kars, Eastern Turkey, is ready to unreel at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Dedicated to the great Armenian lyrical poet Yeghishe Charents, true to its title, the film explores cultural changes imposed on Armenian structures throughout time.

On a quiet pedestrian street in Kars, is the run-down delapitaded house where Yeghishe Charents, (1897 - 1937) one of the greatest Armenian poets was born and lived.Both his primary and secondary schooling took place in Kars.

His patriotic pleas to unite Armenians against Stalinism ended him in prison, where he died at the age of 40.

Even though the vintage reels shown of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova spooled three weeks ago in Pordenone, the aura of the dancer, her interminable legs, her precision on tip-toe and her incredible grace and femininity tinged with mystery, linger in the minds of all festival-goers who viewed them.

York Honored as the IPA's 2009 Mary Pickford Award Winner. Los Angeles, CA, October 14, 2009 --The International Press Academy today announced that actor Michael York will receive the 2009Mary Pickford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Entertainment Industry at this year's 14th Annual Satellite Awards™ on Sunday, December 20, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.

Spanning 45 years in entertainment, Michael York's career began on stage in his native England with the National Youth Theatre. After graduating from Oxford University, he joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre in 1965 and made his film debut the following year in Franco "Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew" with legendary screen couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He also appeared as Tybalt in the Zeffirelli remake of "Romeo and Juliet".

UKULELESCOPE Film accompagnati dal vivo da / Films accompanied live by The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (Dave Suich, Richie Williams, Hester Goodman, George Hinchcliffe, Kitty Lux, Will Grove White, Jonty Bankes) Ideazione e produzione / Created and produced by: Hester Goodman Musica di / Original music: Hester Goodman, George Hinchcliffe

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, using instruments bought with loose change, which believes that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele.

FOX STORY #4702: SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND FAMILY (Fox News, US 1922) James Seebach; New York, 24.6.1922; Fox Movietone News Collection, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

A PERSONAL GLANCE AT W.C. FIELDS

A Personal glance at W.C.Fields

Although Dr. Harriet FIELDS never got a chance to call the stage, silent film and talkies comic legend 'Grandpa' (he died shortly before she was born), as the only granddaughter of the star, she feels strongly about familiarising the world with the true persona of the artist.

Present at this 2008 edition of the Pordenone Giornate de Cinema Muto, which is showing a complete retro of Field's silent films, Dr. Fields,with a doctorate in Community Health and Nursing, Graduate of Columbia University and residing in Washington D.C., sees her mission in presenting her grandfather's work worldwide as two-fold :

Jean Darling, child prodigy of the silent film era, now a sprightly 84, is present as Guest of Honour at this year's Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone to introduce the restored copy of OUR GANG films she starred in during the '20s. As a child star, her colleagues included Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Harlow, Hal Raoch, Fatty Arbuckle, Marion Davies, Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. She is one of the few remaining actors of the silent film period left to witness the scene as she did in her autobiography a peek in the past, published in 1995.

This film is shown in dual homage to the great Max Linder himself, and to the maker of the film, his daughter Maud Linder, this year's Jean Mitry Award honoree. On 31 October 1925 Linder, not quite 42 years old, and his 20-year-old wife died in a Paris hotel, in an apparent suicide pact. They left behind their 16-month-old baby, who was taken away by her mother's family, and raised in ignorance of her father's identity. Not until she was about 20 did Maud Linder learn who her father was, and began her quest to rediscover him.

The Rose of Rhodesia (1918), one of the earliest feature films made in South Africa, presented at this year's Giornate del Cinema Muto is a five-reel romance cantered on a stolen diamond, an interracial friendship, and an anti-colonial uprising, The Rose of Rhodesia impressed contemporary reviewers with its daring realism, spectacular outdoor locations, and casting of African actors in prominent roles. Considered lost for most of the last century, the film may claim to be the first fictional treatment of Zimbabwe in cinema.

Abel Gance's J'Accuse (1919), a politically an d stylistically daring anti-war drama produced while the trench warfare of World War I was still grinding up soldiers on both sides of the battle, opens with the title spelled out by the bodies of soldiers striding into formation, like a marching band at a half-time show. Then they collapse, as if dead, to startling effect. Appropriating the cry leveled by Emile Zola during the Dreyfus affair, Gance levels his accusations at war itself.

The film Der Golem is a classic film – doubly so.

First, it has long nestled comfortably within the list of titles that make up the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s. Teachers of survey history courses are more likely to show Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, but a serious enthusiast will make a point of seeing Der Golem as well.

From the start, reviewers recognized Der Golem as Expressionist. In 1921 the New York Times' critic wrote, "Resembling somewhat the curious constructions of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, the settings may be called expressionistic, but to the common man they are best described as expressive, for it is their eloquence that characterizes them." (Spellbound in Darkness, p. 362) In 1930, Paul Rotha's The Film Till Now, the most ambitious world history of cinema in English to date, appeared. Highly influential in establishing the canon of classics, Rotha adored Weimar cinema, including Der Golem.

Francesca Bertini was one of the most successful silent film divas of Italy. Born 1892, she played in films as a child in Naples and in Rome.

Sherlock Holmes comes to Pordenone this year where a crop of his early productions will be shown in the TEATRO VERDI to ardent fans.

The Merry Widow (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, US 1925)is the opening night film at the 2009 Giornate de Cinema Muto 200,

The Music
When I first accompanied The Merry Widow years ago, I was totally struck by this highly creative and inventive film adaptation of the operetta, directed by the genius Erich von Stroheim. Immediately I realized that my "one" piano + singer accompaniment wasn't at all enough to serve this brilliant film. I started a serious quest to develop a score for the film, and at the same time to promote this relatively unknown von Stroheim film wherever I possibly could.

Nicholas Eliopoulos – Producer/Director/Editor "Director's Statement" on Mary Pickford :

Like most of us, I never got to meet Mary Pickford. I did have the privilege of knowing and interviewing her late husband Buddy Rogers. Buddy starred in the first motion picture to ever win a "Best Picture" Oscar…William Wellman's 1927 Silent Classic Wings.

True-blue British actor, Michael York has arrived in Pordenone, Northern Italy, with his wife Pat, to introduce Mary Pickford, the Muse, a new comprehensive documentary on the silent film diva, directed by Nicholas Eliopoulos.

Hollywood Elite turns out for premiere of documentary Mary Pickford, Muse of the Movies which pays tribute to the legendary film star.

Watch the gala here – Documentary Honors Film Legend Mary Pickford

"Why does one constantly mimic herself in front of the lens all the time? In any case, her image will appear as someone else. Photograph seems like a mirror with memory. What happens if herself never coincides with her image…"

Presented in part at the Turkish Pavilion reception at the Cannes Film Festival, LOST SONGS OF ANATOLIA, on a background of clips of peasant musicians from Eastern Turkey featured a modern rock quartet accompanying beautiful authentic shots taken on the spot.

Guests clucking over a glass of champagne were bowled over Tuesday night at the Majestic Hotel when to the tune of the national anthem of Thailand, they caught a glimpse of Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya of Thailand gliding into the Salon Croisette in a glamorous fluffy white strapless evening gown and silver pumps, followed by the Ambassador of Thailand in Paris, and dignitaries from the Entertainment sector of that country. Also in attendance at the reception was the Mayor of CANNES, Monsieur Bernard Brochand.

The Million Yen Girl shown at Udine Far East Festival involves a 21 year old student who heads for the road after experiencing disappointment with her family and disillusionment with the difficulty of earning a living in Tokyo. Wanting to become independent, she co-rents an apartment with a total stranger who throws out a kitten she adopted, after which she tosses all his owning out the window and gets the book for alienation of private property. After a short term in jail, her welcome home is cold and she can count on no support from her family or friends, neither moral nor financial.

Right after Mao, in Communist China early 1980s, director Buming XU recalls the situation in most households where a standard toilet was a luxury and people used "potties". A young Chinese girl Dan, lives in a stifling environment with her family in a house without toilet and has to empty her obnoxious younger brother's waste after he spends most of the day sitting on the loo.

BEHIND THE FORBIDDEN DOOR

Indonesian Cinema was supposed to be dead ! After a flourishing of interesting films in the sixties in that country, little has been known about the sector, but the presence of several NEW WAVE filmakers in their 30s at Udine FarEast Festival

Frozen Flower, an epic blockbuster of a love triangle involving the King and Queen of the Goryeo Dynasty with a General, directed by young Korean, Yoo Ha, takes you into a world of betrayal, honour and feudalism in ancient Korea, at war with China.

Academy-Award Winner For Best Foreign Film 2009

It was full house yesterday at the 1200-seater Teatro Giovanni Theatre in Udine for the European premiere of Departures.

One of the most significant Asian "New Wave" film directors, Hong Kong filmaker, Ann Hui, is present this year, at Udine Far East Festival to talk about her beginnings in the cinema industry of that country. Commissioned by the national broadcaster and ICAC, the anti-corruption entity to create a series of shows on various aspects crime prevalent in the 1970's such as bribery of government officials, kickbacks, corruption of innocents and minors etc..the fledgling filmmaker laid the basis for a rich career as director of author's films which portrayordinary people at throes with the complex issues in life.

Only 12 men in history have walked on the moon and yet there is no personal account of how these historical missions affected each man personally. The Wonder of it All recounts the narrative of their journeys from childhood to the present. The story unfolds as each astronaut talks candidly about his adventure, with never heard statements until now.

Children of the Amazon follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the Indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago. Part road movie, part time travel, her jour- ney tells the story of what happened to life in the largest forest on Earth when a road was built straight through its heart.

Yatterman(Yattaman) from the celebrated cartoon, comes the live action film, of the greatest pop-robot adventure in the world!

…a film already destined to become a cult…

The European Premiere of the highly anticipated blockbuster, directed by the legendary Miike Takashi, will close the eleventh edition of Far East Film.

Valiant French actress Rosine Deréan - from "Douce France to Ravensbrück

On April 25th, 2009, in the tiny village of Genillé (Indre-et-Loire), where she lived and died, a tribute will be held to the stylish '30's French actress and several films she starred in will be shown in 8 mm.

We've all heard our female friends and family members say that famous saying: "A good man is hard to find!" Well how about this take on that saying: "A good Spanish movie is hard to find!!!" Well my dear Cinebloggers, I got news for you: In the process of finding A Good Movie, we found A Good Man (Un Buen Hombre)!

The prolific Cuban filmmaker, Humberto Solás, founder and conceptor of the Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre, inaugurated at the end of the year 2000, in the picturesque port of Gibara, CUBA, which has matured to become an original and successful film event for young talents, passed away on September 18th, in his residence in Miraflores, Havana, after a short bout with cancer.

One of Solas' colleagues described the cause of his death as "sadness from seeing CUBA develop in a way he would not have liked it to".

Gibara, Cuba

Over a Hundred Films Will Compete at the International Non-Budget Movie Festival. As always, the Festival will be held at the small, beautiful northeastern city of Gibara.

The Late Humberto Solas, Founder & Creator Humberto Solás. Photo Archive. Mildrey Ponce.

Brazilian Film festival in Paris. Spring is around the corner, bringing with it the eleventh Festival du Cinéma Brésilien de Paris to be held as usual in the Latin Quarter at Nouveau Latina theatre from 29 April through 12 May, 2009.

Discover new fiction film from 29 April to 5 May) and documentaries (May 6th-12th).

Fiction Awards designated by a professional Jury will go to Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress at a ceremony to be held on May 5th.

Festival de cinema do Brasil in Paris.

The first week of this 9th two-prong event (feature competition and then documentaries) has ended at the L'Arlequin Cinema in Paris 'trendy Quartier Latin with the presence of top-knotch Brazilian filmmakers, actors and producers, flown over for the event to present each of the two dozen films in competition.

Big names of Brazil's 'cinema novo' period such as Miguel Farias, Carlos (Caca) Diegues, Sergio Rezende, Joao Batista de Andrade boasted a vigorous older-generation slate of works to compete with talented newercomers like Tata Amoral, the only female feature director, Heitor Dhalia, Karim Ainouz and Cao Hamburger.

I want to elaborate on a subject I touched on in my last blog, about when I met Pedro Almodóvar the week before he won an Academy Award for All about My Mother.

My friend John is an executive at United Artists (who distributed the film for the U.S.), and he is also a close friend of Pedro. John mentioned to me that UA had arranged for him to stay with his buddy Pedro at a high rollers suite @ the MGM Grand in Las Vegas; this is so Pedro could chill at and be pampered and de-stressed before he was named the winner of his first shiny golden Oscar. Well, guess who my friend John invited to go? ME!!!

Hello from afar, my fellow bloggers. I write my final Oscar-themed blog of 2008 from the capital of the best coffee in the world, Quindío, Colombia. On my week away from the Openfilm headquarters (located in an undisclosed Cyberfilm Paradise), I had two major topics running through my head. #1: Coffee, and #2: the 81st annual Academy Awards. As a Colombian filmmaker, I was in heaven this week. First of all, because I came to this beautiful country to shoot a video of the entire coffee cultivating-to-packaging process, from growing the coffee beans on the lavish Colombian fields 1400 feet above sea level in the beautiful lands just above the vast Amazon, and finally to the final smile of happiness of the java junkies sipping some of the best coffee in the world.

8:40

The show is off to a great start. Hugh Jackman sure is a versatile guy - not only can he grow knives out of his knuckles, but he can sing and dance with the best of ‘em.

8:47

Penelope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress - hooray! She created the most hilarious portrait of an artist in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which proved once and for all that Scarlett Johansson couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.

The 81st Annual Academy Awards are two days away. Going in, I'm fairly ambivalent about the outcome. Unlike last year, when There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men duked it out for the top prize, there are no masterpieces. I deeply admired Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Andrew Stanton's WALL-E and Gus Van Sant's Milk. These would have been my nominees for Best Director and Best Picture, but many of them got gypped.

Still, I'll definitely be tuning in. I've watched every awards show since 1990, when I was 9 going on 10. All 9-year-olds who watch the Oscars naturally assume they'll be making it to the podium someday. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd find a few acceptance speeches, written in chicken-scratch and tucked away for safekeeping. I'm more cynical and realistic about all that now - instead of 30, now I'm giving myself until 40 to win an Oscar. Now and then I'm forced to look away to avoid being blinded by all the Great and Important People basking in their own sense of self-worth. But mostly the Oscars give me a giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Latinos in the 2009 Award Season

The only quasi Latino thing to celebrate on the Oscar nomination list is Penelope Cruz's performance as best supporting actress in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, as you can read about in my previous blog, "Will Penelope Be Wearing Gold?" But even though Cruz is the only Hispanic name on the list, we come to consider if the Academy is being a bit racist in not nominating any more Latino talent in the recent year's Latin cinema. Is it because there is no other Latin talent out there? Nope, because talent there sure is! The Sundance Awards were recently announced, giving six Awards to Latino filmmakers and Latino films! How come none of these were recognized by the Academy?

When you look at this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Actress, one thing that sticks out is the number of nude scenes the actresses have appeared in. Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Kate Winslet (The Reader) - these are beautiful and mega-talented young women who have never shied away from on-camera nudity. Their nominations got me thinking about the nature of female sexuality in films.

Oscar Gold that is....! This is the first time that Penelope appears to be one of the favorite contenders for the best supporting actress Oscar in an English-language film.

El Patio de mi Carcel - My Prison Yard This film is somewhat indifferent. The storyline is not very deep, but the performances are quite good. Veronica Echegui's performance is the only thing that saved this movie, perhaps the best role of her career that gives her a more promising future.

The plot: A petty thief and her pals attempt to adapt to life outside jail. But there is not much more depth to the overall story. Perhaps first-time director Belén Macías will get it right in her upcoming films.

It really has been a complicated and difficult year for Spanish film, without any blockbuster success in the billboards, different than in 2007 when The Orphanage or [REC] made box office smash numbers very close to Hollywood super productions.

A list of Spanish movies were added in the first quarter of 2008, international productions like Asterix at the Olympic Games and The Oxford Crimes that made some waves and increased the number of spectators attending premieres.

Following this wake some co-produced films were added as national films like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Che, the Argentine, Transsiberian or El Greco, but their box office figures turned out to be really regrettable. These are not 100% Spanish produced, so they don't really count as exclusively Spanish films in my Opinion. Anyway, as 2008 is just past us, I made a couple of lists of 5- 100% Spanish films that, in my opinion, represent the best and the worst films of 2008. In this Cineblog you will read the Best and in the next Cineblog I will bring you the Worst.

Is there anything worse than a movie that's been made for only one purpose: to win Oscars?

I'm talking, of course, about Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon and David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Here are two handsomely mounted productions that take no risks, offer no insights, and are just polite enough to win the Academy's favor. That's not to say these movies are bad, but they ARE boring. Don't let anyone tell you any different.

Latin Nominees for the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards

As we approach the end of the year, the award season begins for the best in film of 2008. One of the first ceremonies that just announced its nominees is the Independent Spirit Awards, the awards show for North America's independent film community. As for Hispanic and Latino nominations, we have four major nominees. On the Spanish side, the talents of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were recognized, as both got nominations for their collaborative work in Woody Allen's flick Vicky Cristina Barcelona

When it comes time to hand out the best-of-the-year awards, movies released in December get all the love. This is partly due to the fact that studios have been saving some of their best products for the holiday season, but sometimes it seems like movie critics and members of the Academy Awards of Arts and Sciences suffer from memory loss. So I thought it might be fun to see what the first 11 months of the year had to offer and make a best-of-the-year list from that. Keep in mind that I still haven’t seen some of the most anticipated films of the season, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Milk. I’ll write about those movies in future blogs. For now, here’s my nowhere-near definitive look at the best movies of 2008, listed in order of preference:

Visions of Slavery in Cinema This is the theme of the 9th edition of the Festival international du film contre l'exclusion et pour la tolérance.

" Visions de l'esclavage au cinéma " organised by FIFET, held December 5th through 13th at UNESCO in Paris, France.

BOO-enas Noches, guys and ghouls. Welcome to the first-ever Halloween edition of Jr’s Cineblog, where we will be dissecting the best terror films to watch if you want to get spooked… en Español!!! In this list, we will bring to you the top horror, thriller and suspense films produced in Spanish. So grab your chili con carne popcorn… and cuddle up next to that special Mamasita or Papacito, and grant them the protection and tranquility they need from oh-so-terrifying Spanish celluloid horror.