Thoughts I Had... while staring at the first images from "Babylon"

by Nathaniel R

Damien Chazelle photographed by Scott Garfield on the set

Damien Chazelle's Hollywood opus (of some sort or another), Babylon, wasn't ready for the fall festivals so we had no clue when we'd get our first taste. Thankfully today Vanity Fair ended our long drought of information, visual and otherwise, with several lux images from the film. Naturally then it's time to discuss our thoughts, yours and mine (as they come to me). Yours go in the comments. Please don't be shy. The team misses socializing with you in this way. Okay, lots of images to get through so here we go as fast as can, thoughts in the order they came to us...

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Links: Paul Sorvino's passing, BAFTA rule tweaks, and Nope's famous film strip

• NYT Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas, The Rocketeer, Nixon), beloved character actor and father of Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, has died at 83
• Guardian Sad news: Shonka Dukureh, who sang "Hound Dog" in her feature debut in Elvis as Big Mama Thornton has died at just 44

Much Happier links after the jump involving "Horse in Motion" from Nope, 'All the Way' Mae from A League of Their Own, Jessica Chastain's new film, and more...

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The long reach of 'Nosferatu,' now 100 years old

by Brent Calderwood

A century after its March 4th, 1922, premiere in Berlin, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu remains a truly chilling classic. It’s widely acknowledged that Nosferatu and other German Expressionist masterpieces were influential not only to the development of Hollywood horror, but also to film noir and other genres. Nothing demonstrates the shadowy reach of Expressionism quite so strikingly, though, as its prevalence in the first wave of Walt Disney’s full-length features, which quoted heavily from Murnau and his contemporaries...

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Why everyone should know and cherish Lois Weber

by Cláudio Alves

In such works as his Story of Film and Women Make Film, Mark Cousins has put forward the idea that film history is sexist by omission. That's undeniable when one considers the case of the many women film pioneers who saw their achievements overshadowed by and even misattributed to their male colleagues. Lois Weber, who's currently being celebrated on the Criterion Channel, is one of those filmmakers whose legacy has been usurped, forgotten, despite both its quality and importance. The fact most of her 140 films are lost doesn't help matters. However, the few that have survived speak of an accomplished visual storyteller, political artist, and fearless provocateur. I think every cinephile should know about Lois Weber, and here's why… 

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Showbiz History: Jupiter Ascending, Coraline, and silent sex symbol Ramon Novarro

6 random things that happened on this day, February 6th, in showbiz history

1942 The comic western Valley of the Sun hits theaters. Hollywood was struggling to figure out what to do with Lucille Ball that decade. This was one of those 'well, how about this genre?' attempts...

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