Lost in the Movies: Island of Lost Pictures

Island of Lost Pictures


There's a certain discipline, a certain art if you will, in laying out visual tributes and choosing which screen-caps will top a post. Often something must be sacrificed for the visual flow, and so many striking images - along with some fascinatingly random ones - get cast by the wayside (sort of like making a film, come to think of it). At other times, the post itself is abandoned or deleted, leaving the headers in limbo.

Recently, while browsing my web albums for other purposes, I noticed numerous pictures that had been uploaded but never posted on the blog. Here they are, lined up in reverse order of when they were supposed to be used - still a limited selection (if I put everything up there'd be thousands of castoffs swarming this column). Nonetheless there's quite a lot here (I stopped counting after the first hundred), including stills and screen-caps borrowed from others, but probably a majority (especially of the top half) were my caps.

Oddly enough, given their chronology, these pictures form a kind of alternate-universe historical overview of Lost in the Movies...



By request, here is a complete list of the films or other media featured above. Links are to the pieces these images were originally intended for, numbers represent how many pictures in a row are from a given title. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 24 City (2) (for unwritten review), Unknown Pleasures (3) (for unwritten review), Neon Genesis Evangelion (5), The Secret of NIMH (2), Savages, Tanner '88, Rosemary's Baby, Blight (for unwritten segment of the Avant-Garde series), Taxi Driver, Ugetsu, Wild Strawberries (2), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (4), Farewell to the Summer Light (12), The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather, It's a Wonderful Life, Murder My Sweet (3), The Story of the Fox, Jaws, Breakfast at Tiffany's, End of Evangelion (3), Songs of Innocence and Experience (for unpublished visual tribute), What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, Egi barany, Amelie, The Public Enemy, L'Inferno, The Mistress of Shenstone, Cold Turkey, Reptilicus, L.A. Story (also-ran for Remembering the Movies), White Fang, unknown horror movie (part of Remembering the Movies), Cimarron, unknown black-and-white movie - maybe Psycho?, Lady and the Tramp, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2), Sleeping Beauty (2), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Help! (3), Fire in the Sky (2), Daisies (3), Faerie Tale Theatre: The Nightingale, Juliet of the Spirits (3), The Mascot, For All Mankind (5), The Wind in the Willows, The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Fists in the Pocket, The Wind in the Willows, The Company of Wolves (3), The Wind in the Willows (2), Dumbo, Hopscotch, Mole's Christmas, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Spartacus (2), The Wind in the Willows (2), Moolaade, The Wind in the Willows, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, ABC Saturday morning cartoons, The Godfather (4), Civilisation (33), Return of the Jedi (2), Revenge of the Sith (3), Star Wars (3), The Empire Strikes Back (3), The Good Fairy (for uncompiled "themed screen cap" follow-up, examining movies within movies), La Dolce Vita, Goodfellas, The World, Human Behavior, A Single Man, Up in the Air, Skywhales (for unwritten Sun's Not Yellow review), Barry Lyndon, Lost in Space, Dennis the Menace, Kindergarten Cop/Edward Scissorhands/Home Alone, Krysar, The Whispering Chorus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Groundhog Day (for unpublished Sun's Not Yellow review), I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (for unwritten book review), Pierrot le fou, Syndromes and a Century (3), Balloon Land, The New World (2), Wings of Desire (for deleted Examiner piece covering retro screenings in Boston), Ballast, In Bruges, Manhattan, random photo of a sunrise (for deleted Dancing Image piece announcing my new blog, the Sun's Not Yellow), The Private Sea: LSD & the Search for God (for unfinished book review), random photo of movie-book collector, Gone With the Wind, Blue Velvet, Greetings, random picture of old automobile, Vertigo, Rear Window, Twin Peaks (3), The Trip, Red Hot Riding Hood, Ben-Hur, Frontline: The Al-Qaeda Files, The Devil Came on Horseback, Fahrenheit 9/11, Tom Jones, Funny Face, Contempt, The Small Back Room, The Round-Up, A Star is Born (2), Twin Peaks, random photo of termites, The Incredibles, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Update 2018: Several of these images were restored to the site at a later date.



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8 comments:

Shamus said...

Those first screen caps are from Jia's films aren't they? Unknown Pleasures and 24 City, unless I'm mistaken. I recall that you had said earlier that you hadn't seen the latter: if you did watch it, I'm interested to hear what you think about it.

Joel Bocko said...

I enjoyed both, probably Unknown Pleasures more, though not as much as other Jias I'd seen. 24 City was a little more restrained than I expected, but I suspect it's the kind of film that will grow on me with further viewings. And I definitely need to see it again - I watched it in the midst of a lot of other stuff, and now I can't remember it well. Out of curiosity was some of the "documentary" stuff staged? (I feel like I read that somewhere and it should be fairly easy to Google right now but it's late & I'm feeling lazy haha) I think one of the women he interviews is featured in a short film on the disc, which made me think she was an actress. That short actually kind of sticks with me more than the feature doc actually, perhaps because of its alignment with something I'm working on.

Shamus said...

Joel,

Sorry for not responding sooner but I was caught up in some other stuff. Yes, some of the interviews are staged, with actresses playing workers, including Joan Chen, and, of course, Jia's wife, Zhao Tao. This actually pissed off many reviewers, but I think this dichotomy is entirely in keeping with Jia's concerns- reality / fiction, globalization / communism, workers/ Bourgeoisie and private lives / public performances. Incidentally, 24 city is my favorite of his films, and one of the finest films I've seen of the previous decade.

Joel Bocko said...

I will probably be doing capsule reviews at the end of the year or early January, to reflect my viewing since September. I'll try to rewatch 24 City before then, since I don't feel my previous viewing did it justice especially given your praise here. You don't have a site do you (Blogger doesn't link anything to your name so I'm not sure)? Or anywhere you've written a piece on it? If you've left comments elsewhere which you feel sum up your thoughts on the film, feel free to link them here. I'd love to read more.

Shamus said...

Argh, just saw your comment here! This is precisely the peril of commenting on different threads at the same time. Uh, no I don't have a blog of my own: I mean, I did, but the view count was so embarrassingly low that I couldn't go on.

I made some extensive notes on Jia's films, but nothing like a complete piece- I'm still trying to figure them out, frankly.

STinG said...

I must say the mystery of seeing many of these screencaps is killing me, to the point that, if it's not out of your way or too much trouble, I'd love to know where each comes from... so far I recognize
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Twin Peaks
The Incredibles
24 City
Unknown Pleasures
Wings of Desire
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Red Hot Riding Hood
The Secret of NIMH
Rosemary's Baby
Ugetsu (I believe...)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The Godfather
Civilisation
The Godfather Part II
The Big Sleep
The Story of the Fox
Jaws
Breakfast at Tiffany's (again, I believe...)
L.A. Story
Daisies
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fists in the Pocket
Dumbo
Spartacus
The Star Wars saga
A Single Man
Groundhog Day
The Nightmare Before Christmas
In Bruges
Manhattan
Gone with the Wind
Blue Velvet
and Rear Window

What are the ones I've missed?

Joel Bocko said...

I'll put up a code soon. At the time I wanted to bit just posting them took so much time I put it off till later!

Joel Bocko said...

Ok, just finished it. If you open the page in two tabs you can click back and forth to determine which movies are which. I also added links so you can click on the title to see how & where I originally intended to incorporate it on the blog.

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