Showing posts with label Free Online Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Online Films. Show all posts

Monday, 15 January 2018

Links to Free Online Streaming Platforms for Films and Moving Image Work

Last updated January 17, 2018
Temperatūra ne pagal Celsijų / Off Gauge Temperature (Almantas Grikevičius, 1973)
Recommended by Herb Shellenberger. Click on CC in the frame above to switch on English subtitles.

Film Studies For Free brings you an entry that has come about because of a piece of Facebook crowdsourcing by film curator extraordinaire Herb Shellenberger. Shellenberger requested from his friends any links they had to free online streaming platforms for films and moving image work. He was especially interested in ones that are run by archives, and most interested in those outside the US/UK.

A wonderful list of links was rapidly assembled to a wide variety of international platforms, only some of which FSFF has tweeted or blogged about before. So, courtesy of Shellenberger and his friends, below is the list (with acknowledgement given to the individual suggesting each link - thanks especially to Patrick Friel for his extensive contribution, along with Herb).

If you have any further suggestions to make for the list, please use the Comments thread below.

Note: OpenCulture.com also has a great list of free online films, and currently links to at least two of the channels suggested by the crowdsourcing above). It sourced its list from the following collections: Public domain collection of film noir at Archive.org - Boing Boing; The Best: Movies in the Public Domain - Wired; Films in the Public Domain - Wikipedia; Fimoculous list of Hulu Movies; About.com: Download the Classics; Salon: The Future is Almost Now.
Temperatūra ne pagal Celsijų / Off Gauge Temperature (Almantas Grikevičius, 1973)
Recommended by Herb Shellenberger.
Online at the Lithuanian documentary films website, run by Meno Avilys: http://sinemateka.lt 
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Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Full Length Feature Films Free Online via BFI and Daily Motion


Film Studies For Free can't believe its eyes!!

The British Film Institute has entered into a partnership with the advertising-supported, video-streaming site Daily Motion to provide access to some of the incredible wealth of films that the BFI has funded and distributed over many years.

Currently, as of today, the new channel is hosting 47 films of varying lengths, from amazing silents to rare poetic documentaries (like Chris Petit's Radio On), as well as some incredibly important live action and animated fiction films, including a number of otherwise hard to see works by Terrence Davies and Lotte Reininger.

A must-visit site and a hugely laudable resource. Thank you BFI.
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Thursday, 24 June 2010

Making the meaning affective: Peter Brunette's film studies

Still image from the final shot of L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

 Luxuriating in the view over the Sicilian coast, the Mt. Etna volcano, and the Mediterranean sea here at the Taormina Film Festival. Oh yeah, and seeing some good films too!
Peter Brunette,  June 15, 2010

Rather than viewing the narrative content of Antonioni's films as symbolic, as representations of an absent meaning, [Peter] Brunette calls for an appreciation of the visual in and for itself, as meaning 'is made affective, through line, shape, and form' (60). Meaning emerges from the image, it is 'made affective'. Searching for authorial intent behind seemingly obvious symbols -- Brunette shows through the discrepancy between Antonioni's own suggestions and the contrasting critical reception of his films -- will inevitably say more about the critical frame employed, than the film itself. What Brunette is claiming is the loss of referent for the sign, the loss of signification. This links nicely to his deconstructive concern, which is itself indicative of the flaws in the existentialist debate. The absences that characteristically mark Antonioni's films (witness the vanishing Anna (Massari) in L'avventura) points not to a transcendental absence, but rather indicates the way out of the Platonic illusion of the coexisting Ideal and (vs) real. 'David Martin-Jones, '[Review of Brunette's book on Antonioni', Film-Philosophy, Volume 3 Number 50, December 1999
Katherine's exclamation [in Viaggio in Italia, Roberto Rossellini, 1954] is also emblematic of the death theme that permeates the film, and that culminates in the sequence so aptly described by Brunette in the following passage: "The parts begin to form themselves into a man and a woman; death has caught them making love, or at least wrapped tightly in each other's arms. Suddenly, the museum, the catacombs, and the Cumaean Sybil all come together in one startling image: the physicality and rawness of the ancient world, the ubiquity of death in life, and love, however inadequate and flawed, as the only possible solution". Asbjørn Grønstad, "The Gaze of Tiresias: Joyce, Rossellini and the Iconology of "The Dead"", Nordic Journal of English Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002, citing Peter Brunette, Roberto Rossellini, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, 1996)
In Peter Brunette and David Wills's much under-valued Screen/Play: Derrida and Film Theory [Princeton University Press, 1989] they discuss the form that a deconstructive mode of analysis might take. They write: 'From a deconstructive stand-point, analysis would no longer seek the supposed center of meaning but instead turn its attentions to the margins, where the supports of meaning are disclosed, to reading in and out of the text, examining the other texts onto which it opens itself out or from which it closes itself off'. [...] [I]t strikes me that a serious discussion of Brunette and Wills's book would be essential to any work purporting to discuss cinema and deconstructive politics.[...]  David Sorfa, Film-Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 23, 1998
A number of the tributes to film critic and scholar Peter Brunette, who died last week at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy,  conveyed very movingly their opinion that he left this world while doing what he loved.

Those of us who followed Peter's activities and travels, at least from the vantage point of his social media network, certainly loved his updates on them, like his final Facebook posting above. His death was a huge shock, and a great loss, notably to the two spheres -- film scholarship and theory, and film criticism -- that he managed to join up, much more successfully than most, through his own prolific practice (he gave an account of some of the issues at stake in this choice in an interview here, and Gerald Peary's obituary beautifully refers to his unusual trajectory, for an academic, here).

FSFF's author's acquaintance with Peter Brunette began with his 'director books' (listed with his other work in his CV here), and in particular with his marvellous study of the films of Roberto Rossellini, now one of the best freely accessible e-books online, thanks to Peter and his publishers. Peter was a fan and an important supporter of freely accessible culture and ideas on the Web, as this article he wrote in 2000 testifies.

Fortunately, a very good selection of other articles and chapters (and a substantial podcast) by him may be experienced at the click of a mouse, quite aside from the virtual reams of online movie criticism under his byline. That means that the following list of links to the former work - to Peter Brunette's formal film studies - is, then, the most fitting tribute that FSFF can give to a scholar who gave so much and influenced so many in his too short (or just long enough) life.





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Tuesday, 18 August 2009

FourDocs' fabulous documentary films and resources online


Still from O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson, UK 1953, shown as part of first Free Cinema programme in 1956)

Film Studies For Free wanted to flag up for its readers the existence of FourDocs, the great (British) Channel 4 documentary website. That is to say, it wanted to flag up its continued but not everlasting existence, that is...

According to the FourDocs weblog, the site

was set up in 2005 to provide a platform for new filmmakers to showcase their own short documentaries, receive feedback from leading industry experts and discuss them with each other. The site functioned as an online film school, with video guides covering everything from structure and lighting to editing choices. The archive timeline contextualised 30 or so definitive documentaries, such as Listen to Britain, The Lift and The Boy Who’s Skin Fell Off, and perhaps most inspirational were the interviews with award winning directors like Molly Dineen and Paul Watson.

The FourDocs site is currently 'on hold', and probably being 'reconceived' even as FSFF writes; we eagerly await information about the new form it will take.

In the meantime, Film Studies For Free urges you to take advantage of all the great resources on offer at the site while you still can, in particular its fantastic archive which includes a library of full length documentaries representing some of the best filmmaking of the past century.

See below for FSFF's A-Z list of direct links to viewable films, including classics of 1920s and 1930s British documentary, several spectacular examples of Free Cinema, and wonderful, recent documentary filmmaking. National accessibility to the films might vary, however; to be sure, once you've pressed 'play' at the site's pages, remember also to click on the arrow pointing to the bottom right hand corner of the mini video player.

FSFF thinks, though, that there are plenty of other worthwhile resources on the films accessible via these links even if there turn out to be some international restrictions on viewing. Enjoy!

  • A Visit to..., George Cricks 1906 -- A Visit to Peek Frean & Co's Biscuit Works. A promotional film that turned mechanical tedium into industrial lyricism
  • Babitsky's War, Paul Yule 2000 -- An investigation into the disappearance of a journalist in Chechnya
  • The Battle of Orgreave, Mike Figgis/Jeremy Deller 2001 -- Reconstructing miners clashing with the police in Yorkshire and looking back at the decline of coal mining in the 80s
  • Before Hindsight, Jonathan Lewis/Elizabeth Taylor-Mead 1977 -- Examining editorial attitudes in the non-fiction British cinema and newsreels of the thirties towards the rise of Fascism
  • The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, Patrick Collerton 2003 -- Hugely-influential story of a man with a rare disease that led to his skin peeling off, and his last days of life
  • The Dinner Party, Paul Watson 1997 -- Conservative voters in the home counties come together to discuss their politics.
  • Divorce Iranian Style, Kim Longinotto 2001 -- Documentary about women and divorce in Iran set in a family law court in Tehran.
  • The Drifters, John Grierson 1929 -- The lives of herring fisherman of the North Sea, as portrayed by John Grierson.
  • The Dying Room, Kate Blewett 1995 -- In 1995, Brian Woods and Kate Blewett uncovered the systematic neglect of abandoned babies in China.
  • The Firing Line, Nicholas Cohen 1996 -- Army cadets from a private school take their end of year training tests.
  • The Girl Chewing Gum, John Smith 1976 -- Pretending to direct an everyday 1970s East End street scene
  • The Grave, Belinda Giles 1997 -- A team of forensic archeologists try to piece together what happened in a massacre during the Yugoslav conflict.
  • Heart of Britain, Humphrey Jennings 1941 -- Made by Humphrey Jennings and the Ministry for Information, this film is a tribute to the workers of Britain during World War Two.
  • Housing Problems, A. Elton/E. Anstey 1935 -- Provocative depiction of living conditions in the slums in South London.
  • Industrial Britain, J.Grierson/R.Flaherty 1933 -- This film about British Industry in the 1930s portrays the industrial worker as a heroic figure, championing the craftsmanship of the individual behind the dehumanizing façade of the industrial landscape.
  • Julia's Baby, Marilyn Gaunt 1994 -- A deaf blind mother fights with social services to be able to bring up her baby.
  • The Leader..., Nick Broomfield 1991 -- The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife. Documentary about the South African neo-Nazi leader Eugene Terreblanche, and Nick Broomfield's attempts to get an interview with him.
  • The Lift, Marc Isaacs 2001 -- Marc Isaacs' award winning film set in a lift in some council flats.
  • Listen to Britain, H.Jennings/S.McAllister 1942 -- Documentary showing a Britain united in the war effort through a montage of various scenes of daily life.
  • London, Patrick Keiller 1992 -- A surreal and imaginative portrait of a depressed London in 1992, as the city lurched from one crisis to another
  • Manhunter, Witold Starecki 1996 -- Rabbi Gordon's job is to track down wayward husbands and force them to divorce their wives.
  • The Man Who..., Joseph Bullman 2000 -- The Man Who Bought Mustique. The story of Lord Glenconner from Scotland, who bought an island in the Caribbean and then lost it.
  • Momma Don't Allow, T. Richardson/K. Reisz 1956 -- A celebration of the free spirit of youth and Teddy Boys, particularly in London's 1950s working class.
  • O Dreamland, Lindsay Anderson 1956 -- The start of the Free Cinema movement, the iconic Margate funfair as a metaphor for the shabbiness of modern life
  • Operation Hurricane, Ronald Stark 1953 -- Documentary recording the construction and testing of Britain's first atomic bomb.
  • P Company, Ian Taylor 1992 -- The never seen before and brutal four week selection test for the elite parachute regiment.
  • Seven Days in Hell, Sue Bourne 1993 -- Businessmen go on an outward bound course that makes P Company look like a picnic.
  • Soldat, Paul Jenkins 2001 -- Documentary about the once great but now decaying Russian Army and the soldiers forced to endure it.
  • Sunday Sport, Norman Hull 1997 -- Inside the newsroom of the newspaper that everyone pretends they don't buy.
  • Terminus, John Schlesinger 1961 -- Observational film looking at the comings and goings of London's Waterloo railway station.
  • This is a True Story, Paul Berczeller 2003 --Investigating the mysterious death of a Japanese girl in Fargo, USA
  • The Unforgiving, Clive Gordon 1993 -- Documentary about the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
  • The Valley, Dan Reed 1999 -- The plight of the Albanian population in Kosovo.
  • The Wet House, Penny Woolcock 2002 -- Observing Providence Row refuge for the alcoholic homeless, a place where the residents can drink as much as they like
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Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Ten Favourite Full-Length Films Online For Free


Image from À Propos de Nice (Jean Vigo, 1930)

Film Studies For Free is about to depart on its holidays (sun, sea, sand, and definitely no cyberspace), but -- philanthropic to the last -- it wanted to leave its readers with some cultural and educational sustenance during what will inevitably be its much lamented absence.

So, here, folks, are some (emboldened) links to a few of FSFF's favourite free full-length films currently online, including mini-Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Vigo fests:
See you all again in early-ish August with mammoth links-posts, more video essays, and some 'think-pieces' about Film Studies online, too...
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Monday, 20 April 2009

Werner Herzog Links inc YouTube Fest

Film Studies For Free wanted to let academic fans of Werner Herzog know that (certainly in the UK, but most probably elsewhere, too, if no geoblocking) they can currently watch eight of his films on YouTube in their glorious entirety. This is thanks to the video distributor Starzmedia, one of the companies participating in YouTube's growing efforts to stream full-length films with the support of the movie companies who own the rights. Below, FSFF has embedded the trailers of seven of the Herzog films that are currently available. Click on the titles to visit the YouTube pages for the full-length films, which can be watched freely online in relatively good quality versions (Even YouTube Screens Started Small...). (Click HERE for The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser added later. The Starzmedia channel for Herzog is HERE).

And, if that weren't enough excitement for one FSFF day, beneath the video-trailers, at the foot of this post, are some other choice links to freely available Herzog material online.

Aguirre The Wrath Of God



My Best Fiend





Even Dwarfs Started Small





Fitzcarraldo





Lessons Of Darkness





Woyzeck





Little Dieter Needs To Fly





Scholarly online writing about Herzog:

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