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The Film Portal

Portal film-illustration 01
Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Film is an important art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten, and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and in turn, affect them.

Traditional films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision — whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to psychological effects called beta movement and the phi phenomenon.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, photo-play, flick, and most commonly, movie. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema, and the movies.

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Featured article

Matthew Hopkins, Witch Finder General
Witchfinder General is a 1968 British horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, and Hilary Dwyer. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by Tigon British Film Productions and American International Pictures. The story details the heavily fictionalized murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins, a 17th century English lawyer who claimed to have been appointed as a "Witch-finder Generall" by Parliament during the English Civil War to root out sorcery and witchcraft. The film was retitled The Conqueror Worm in the United States in an attempt to link it with Roger Corman's earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe-related films starring Price—although this movie has little to do with Poe and only briefly alludes to his poem. Director Reeves featured many scenes of intense onscreen torture and violence that were considered unusually sadistic at the time. Upon its theatrical release throughout the spring and summer of 1968, the movie’s gruesome content was met with disgust by several film critics in the UK, despite having been extensively censored by the British Board of Film Censors. In the U.S., the film was shown virtually intact and was a box office success, but it was almost completely ignored by reviewers. The film has gradually developed a large cult following, partially attributable to Reeves’s 1969 death from a drug overdose at the age of 25, only nine months after Witchfinder’s release. Over the years, several prominent critics have championed the film, including J. Hoberman, Danny Peary, and Derek Malcolm. In 2005, the magazine Total Film named Witchfinder General the 15th greatest horror film of all time.
  

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Buster Keaton
Credit: Bain News Service

Buster Keaton (born Joseph Frank Keaton, October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American silent film comic actor and filmmaker. His trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression on his face.

  

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Featured biography

Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American television and movie actor. Nichols has appeared in guest spots on television shows such as CSI, Six Feet Under, and Deadwood. His film roles include the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, in which he was cast as an academic and romantic rival to Jake Gyllenhaal's protagonist. In Wimbledon, a film also released in 2004, Nichols played an arrogant American tennis pro, opposite Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. Signed to a rare holding deal with HBO, he most recently starred in his own series, John from Cincinnati. Nichols is the son of a 10-time water skiing champion and was raised in Austin, Texas. He became a successful competitive water skier himself, until a shoulder injury forced him to retire. Shortly afterwards, Nichols moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a career in acting.

  

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Federico Fellini
The author's most important answer is the work itself, and in my work people have found the few things I tried to say. Despite that, the author generally is the least suited to talk about his work.
  

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Featured articles: 35 mm film • Padmé Amidala • James T. Aubrey, Jr. • B movie • Kroger Babb • Eric Bana • Blackface • Blade Runner • The Boondock Saints • Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan • Casablanca (film) • Bette Davis • Dog Day Afternoon • Karen Dotrice • Felix the Cat • Henry Fonda • Fritz the Cat (film) • Gremlins • Gremlins 2: The New Batch • Jake Gyllenhaal • Anthony Michael Hall • Halloween (1978 film) • Halloween II • Halloween III: Season of the Witch • Jabba the Hutt • Jaws (film) • Katie Holmes • Hong Kong action cinema • Angelina Jolie • Diane Keaton • Abbas Kiarostami • Kinetoscope • Lage Raho Munna Bhai • Latter Days • Vivien Leigh • Lindsay Lohan • The Lord of the Rings (1978 film) • Manos: The Hands of Fate • Mom and Dad • Cillian Murphy • Sydney Newman • Austin Nichols • Night of the Living Dead • November (film) • Our Gang • Palpatine • Panavision • Ran (film) • Satyajit Ray • Richard III (1955 film) • Sound film • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace • Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back • KaDee Strickland • Summer of '42 • Sunset Boulevard (1950 film) • Sharon Tate • Tenebrae (film) • Trembling Before G-d • Triumph of the Will • V for Vendetta (film) • Witchfinder General (film) • Preity Zinta

Featured lists: BAFTA Award for Best Film • Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture • Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama • Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score • List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best Foreign Language Film • List of Harry Potter films cast members • List of films that received the Golden Film

Featured topics: Star Wars episodes

Featured pictures:

Buster Keaton by Bain News Service

"Phenakistoscope: A Couple Waltzing", by Eadweard Muybridge
  

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Film topics
Film

Terms - Animation • Beta movement • Camera • Cult film • Digital cinema • Documentary film • Dubbing • Experimental film • Fan film • Film crew • Film criticism • Film festival • Film frame • Film genre • Film journals and magazines • Film industry • Film manifesto • Film stock • Film theory • Filmmaking • History of film • Independent film • Lost film • Movie star • Narrative film • Open content film • Persistence of vision • Photographic film • Propaganda • Recording medium • Special effect • Subtitles • Sound stage • Web film • World cinema

Lists - List of basic film topics • List of film topics • List of films • List of film festivals • List of film formats • List of film series • List of film techniques • List of highest-grossing films • List of longest films by running time • List of songs based on a film or book • List of US box office bombs • Lists of film source material • List of open content films

  

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