New Acquisitions - November 2015

Another month has passed, we've added another hundred titles to our collection. The obvious big highlight is the first season of Empire, the massively successful hip-hop drama that has been a boon to television in more than one way. You might also spot Going Clear, the famously damning exposé of the Church of Scientology, and the Wachowski's totally-off-the-rails sci-fi wonder Jupiter Ascending.

But you may notice a ton of oddly named, vaguely threatening-sounding films like A Dangerous Possession and The Tattooed Stranger. Our media librarian Chris Lewis is currently on a mission to add every single film noir to our collection, and these are some of the new additions. We're getting pretty close! If you ever need to research the film noir genre, we are more ready for you than you might be prepared for.

Hit the jump for a full list of what's new...

TCM's 'Summer of Darkness" offers free online noir course – and a noir movie marathon!

Turner Classic Movies is preparing for "Summer of Darkness," a slate of over 100 noir films a commentary that will air throughout June and July. Two months of nearly century-old, dark, black-and-white movies is a hard sell during warm weather and peak movie theater season, but Turner clearly isn't aiming for a general audience. Their noir extravaganza is for film nerds – and now TCM has the academic bonafides to back that up.

TCM has partnered with Ball State University to present a free online course, titled Into the Darkness: Investigating Film Noir, that will examine the history of noir using critical texts, live chats, and the original films. The course includes access to TCM's archives, which include production photos, trailers, and essays about the films being discussed.

We've never participated in a MOOC ourselves, but we have full faith that BSU and TCM can deliver a quality course. If you've feeling a little itchy for film criticism now that the semester's out, this might be the right outlet for you. Best of all, it's all lectures and no assignments. It's learning for the sake of learning! You always wanted more of that from your education, right?

IFC Ranks The Top 50 Opening Title Sequences Of All Time...

http://www.ifc.com/news/2011/02/the-50-greatest-opening-title.php

Media Services is home to most of these great films, below are the top ten:

1. Vertigo (1958) DVD 14, VHS 60
2. A Hard Day's Night (1964) DVD 5740, VHS 145
3. Se7en (1995) DVD 22
4. Touch of Evil (1958) DVD 163
5. Goldfinger (1964) DVD 4995
6. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) N/A
7. Raging Bull (1980) DVD 1876, VHS 1937
8. Watchmen (2009) DVD 6080
9. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (1966) DVD 1001
10. Saturday Night Fever (1977) DVD 3123, VHS 2551

Audio clip: Bob Dylan on Film Noir and Cornell Woolrich

From his satellite radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, on the topic of night.

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