Just in time for the holidays, Chris Columbus’ Home Alone and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas have been unwrapped with 23 other cinematic sparklers for entry into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, it was announced Wednesday.
Among those also voted in: Dinner at Eight (1933), the seventh film from director George Cukor to be selected for preservation; Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan (1985); John Sayles’ Matewan (1987); James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991); Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993); Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995); Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love & Basketball (2000) and Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (2000).
Then, there are the films with music central to their core: Lady and the Tramp (1955), Cruisin’ J-Town (1975), Passing Through (1977), Fame (1980) and the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom (2013).
This year’s picks span the years 1921 (the Kodak educational film A Movie Trip Through Filmland) to 2013 (20 Feet From Stardom and the lone Oscar best picture winner on the list, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave).
TCM will screen a selection of films named to the registry on Thursday starting at 5 p.m. PT. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and TCM host Jacqueline Stewart, chair of the National Film Preservation Board and director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, will have a discussion.
Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, the librarian each year since 1989 has named 25 motion pictures at least 10 years old that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. There are now 875 films in the registry.
Hayden confers with members of the National Film Preservation Board and others before making the selections. There were 6,875 other titles also considered that were nominated by the public. Nominations for 2024 will be accepted through Aug. 15 here.
Here are the 2023 inductees in alphabetical order, with descriptions supplied by the Library of Congress:
Alambrista! (1977)
This is the powerfully emotional story of Roberto (Domingo Ambriz), a Mexican national working as a migrant laborer in the U.S. to send money back to his wife and newborn. Director Robert M. Young’s sensitive screenplay refuses to indulge in simplistic pieties, presenting us with a world in which exploitation and compassion coexist in equal measure. The film immerses us in Roberto’s world as he moves across vast landscapes, meeting people he can’t be sure are friend or threat, staying one step ahead of immigration officials. Alambrista! is as relevant today as it was in 1977, a testament to its enduring humanity. In an essay for its Criterion DVD release, film scholar Charles Ramirez Berg called the drama the “first and arguably best rendering of the Mexican American diaspora story.”
Said Chon Noriega, a professor of cinema and media studies at UCLA: “The film offers a very different view of the U.S., and it’s not one that’s based on analysis or critique or politics. It’s based on observation. And what you see in this film is what the U.S. looks like from the point of view of a migrant worker.”
Domingo Ambriz in ‘Alambrista!’
Courtesy Everett Collection
Apollo 13 (1995)
The extreme challenges involved in space travel present compelling cinema storylines, and one cannot imagine a more harrowing scenario than the near-tragic Apollo 13 space mission. Howard’s retelling is equally meticulous and emotional, a master class in enveloping the audience into a complicated technological exercise in life-and-death problem-solving. Based on the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, Apollo 13 blends skillful editing, crafty special effects, a James Horner score and a well-paced script to detail the quick-thinking heroics of the astronaut crew and NASA technicians as they improvise and work through unprecedented situations. The talented cast includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan.
“It’s a very honest, heartfelt reflection of something that was very American, which was the space program in that time, and what it meant to the country and to the world,” Howard said.
Bamboozled (2000)
Mixing elements of A Face in the Crowd, The Producers, Network and Putney Swope, Lee’s film showcases his unique talents, here blending dark comedy and satire exposing hypocrisy. An African American TV executive (Damon Wayans) grows tired of his ideas being rejected by his insincere white boss, who touts himself with an “I am Black People” type of vibe. To get out of this untenable situation, Wayans proposes an idea he feels will surely get him fired: a racist minstrel show featuring African American performers donning blackface. The show becomes a smash hit while at the same time sparking outrage. As with the best satire, the focus is not on believable plot but rather how the story reveals the ills of society, in this case how Hollywood and television have mistreated African Americans over the decades.
“One of the most powerful sequences I think I’ve done is the closing scenes of Bamboozled, where we show historically, visually, the hatefulness of white people in blackface,” said Lee, who now has five films in the registry. “Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Eddie Cantor … just the debasement of who we are as a people.”
Bohulano Family Film Collection (1950s-1970s)
Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Moreno Bohulano recorded their family life for more than 20 years. Shot primarily in Stockton, California, their collection documents the history of the Filipino community during a period of significant immigration. They were involved in local Filipino American circles, including the building of Stockton’s Filipino Center in the early ’70s. The movies record community events, family gatherings, trips to New York City, Atlantic City and Washington, D.C. and the family’s 1967 visit to the Philippines.
Cruisin’ J-Town (1975)
Duane Kubo’s documentary tells the story of the jazz fusion band Hiroshima, including its attempts to blend art and identity, the group’s roots and influence in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles and the burgeoning pulse of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the early ’70s. A highlight in the film is a cross-cultural jam with Hiroshima and the Chicano performing arts company El Teatro Campesino. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in collaboration with Visual Communications.
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
As a follow-up to her acclaimed low-budget indie Smithereens, Seidelman directed this hip screwball romp involving personal ads, mistaken identity and characters found only in New York. The film features Rosanna Arquette as an unhappy New Jersey housewife and Madonna as a Lower East Side bohemian free spirit named Susan; Arquette’s deep immersion into Susan’s strange world helps Arquette recharge her life and cure its ills. As critics noted, the wacky plot serves as adventure thriller therapy for Arquette as she careens from one unlikely, bizarre event to another. The film also shines as a historical snapshot, offering vignettes into parts of New York City that no longer exist, as well as glimpses into ’80s fashion and music, especially Madonna’s personal style and her renowned dance single “Into the Groove.”
Rosanna Arquette (left) and Madonna from ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’
Courtesy Everett Collection
Dinner at Eight (1933)
This racy, pre-Code comedy-drama illustrates why Cukor has so many works on the National Film Registry — he knew how to adapt plays into film, removing their staginess to make them work onscreen and adding wit. Cukor also was a master on how best to use the strengths of his actors and handle egos. This ensemble picture about high society features an all-star cast (Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, John and Lionel Barrymore, Jean Hersholt, et al), arguably one of the greatest assembled to that point in cinema history, and it became a major attraction and event in the early sound era. Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz adapted the George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber play for the screen.
Edge of the City (1957)
This features superb performances by John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier in a psychological drama set among New York City railroad workers. Based on a live TV drama written expressly for Poitier by Robert Alan Aurthur, Edge of the City follows Cassavetes as a troubled Army deserter who finds trust in others, maturity in himself and reintegration into society after Poitier, playing a stevedore foreman, befriends him. Praised by the NAACP for its message of racial brotherhood, this first feature of blacklisted TV director Martin Ritt offers finely delineated performances by Ruby Dee, Kathleen Maguire and Jack Warden. Critic Stanley Crouch called the film “one of the highest of the high points in Poitier’s career,” noting “an almost heartbreaking effect in his absolute freedom from the stereotypic, moving with such vitality through so many more moods than would be expected of a Black character then or now.”
Sidney Poitier (left) and John Cassavetes in ‘Edge of the City’
Courtesy Everett Collection
Fame (1980)
Alan Parker’s teen musical drama follows the lives of students at New York City’s High School of the Performing Arts as they tackle the demanding environment and the issues students face. The musical numbers stylistically often resemble music videos in a pre-MTV world, and Fame influenced other classic ’80s musicals like Footloose, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. Irene Cara belts out the rousing title song. Roger Ebert said, “Fame is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that understands being a teenager …” The 1980s produced many classic movies on teen life, and Fame was a worthy prelude of great films to come.
Helen Keller in Her Story (1954)
Nancy Hamilton’s Academy Award-winning documentary tells the story of Helen Keller from her birth to her early 70s. Keller lived for 14 more years after the film. The documentary came about long after Keller became an international speaker on behalf of both disabled rights and the U.S. It uses news footage, photographs, interviews, original sequences and a day-in-the-life approach to tell her story.
Home Alone (1990)
The young and deeply expressive Macaulay Culkin became a superstar thanks to this mega-hit that has become embedded into American culture as a holiday classic. Left alone at Christmas time, a plucky youngster uses his creativity and wit to stave off two bumbling burglars. John Hughes (then best known for his teen comedies) fashioned the inventive script while Columbus directed the film for maximum cross-generational appeal. The cast also includes Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, John Heard, Roberts Blossom and Catherine O’Hara. Composer John Williams contributes a memorable score, including the classic “Somewhere in My Memory.”
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
This exquisitely animated love story between a spoiled cocker spaniel and a mutt was arguably the most mature animation created until then by Disney Studios. In addition to standard theatrical formats, Disney released the film in the widescreen CinemaScope process, in part to keep people going to the theaters following the advent of television. One of the studio’s most beloved animated works, this unlikely romantic tale is made memorable by endearing songs, excellent voice talents (Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Verna Felton, Bob Baucom, Peggy Lee, Stan Freberg, et al) and iconic moments including a kiss involving spaghetti.
‘Lady and the Tramp’
Courtesy Everett Collection
The Lighted Field (1987)
This is one of the avant-garde masterworks from Andrew Noren. “I’m a light thief and a shadow bandit,” he once said. “The lovers, light and shadow, and their offspring, space and time, are my themes, and working with their particularities is my passion and delight.” The 62-minute, silent, black-and-white film is a highly personal work in which Noren uses archival imagery combined with urban and domestic images that are infused with his love of light play and evoke a twinned sense of vitality and mortality.
Love & Basketball (2000)
For her feature directorial debut, Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed this engaging film, which follows Monica and Quincy (Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps) as they pursue their basketball careers from childhood to adults, sharing a mutual affection for the game and an eventual love for each other. Unforgettable and inspiring, it has been praised as a refreshing new take on the rom-com genre and has had an enduring impact and ongoing resonance with women athletes and young people. Lee served as one of the producers.
“A great deal of this film was autobiographical: Monica’s character, growing up as an athlete, all the feelings she felt, feeling ‘othered’ and different as if something’s wrong with her because she loves sports,” Prince-Bythewood said. “All those were things that I had to deal with growing up, being a female athlete and with my parents.”
Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan in ‘Love and Basketball’
New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Matewan (1987)
Bringing to light a little-remembered moment in labor history, Sayles’ film dramatizes efforts in 1920 to unionize a West Virginia company town and the bloody battle that followed between strikers and coal company thugs. Sayles incorporates elements from related labor struggles into the story to show how Black migrants and European immigrants hired as scabs often united with local miners. Structured as a Western, the film examines collective nonviolence as a strategy to combat ruthless exploitation within an individualistic culture animated by blood feuds. “Matewan offers a meditation on broad philosophical questions rarely confronted directly in American films,” historian Eric Foner has written. Expertly filmed by Haskell Wexler and featuring engaging ensemble acting by Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Will Oldham and many West Virginia locals, this low-budget gem illuminates remote Appalachian cultural attitudes at a turning point in labor union history.
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994)
Freida Lee Mock’s Oscar-winning documentary tells the story of Chinese American artist and architect Maya Lin. As a Yale student, Lin won a nationwide design competition to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. A firestorm of controversy erupted over the selection of her design, with critics citing her age, lack of architectural experience, Asian American ancestry, the design’s black granite and what they saw as something overly bleak, buried in the ground, rather than a heroic tribute. Lin eloquently defended herself, and the stark, simple, elegant beauty of her V-shaped design pointing toward the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument won the day. The highly visited site has become a cathartic, emotional experience for Americans, and the film explores themes about artistic freedom, creativity, public art and politics.
“Maya, her work and the film — it has a national resonance and is an important part of who we are as Americans,” Mock said.
Maya Lin at work in ‘Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision’
Courtesy Everett Collection
A Movie Trip Through Filmland (1921)
This educational and highly informative film about the production of motion picture film stock and the impact of movies on a global audience was shot at Kodak Park, the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, New York. The film begins with a gathering of animated multi-national characters as they attend an “International Convention of Movie Fans.” The animated curtains part, and the audience sees Kodak Park and a short movie detailing every step of the film manufacturing process, including statistics on how much raw cotton, silver and water is used to create the 147,000 miles of film stock produced in 1921 (enough to circle the globe).
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The king of dark whimsy, Burton won over an even larger (and decidedly younger) crowd with this delightful stop-motion animated offering. Jack Skellington, whose giant pumpkin head rests precariously on top of his rail-thin body, is the king of Halloween Town; one year he dreams of bringing a little Christmas magic to his humble hamlet. Conceived and produced by Burton (with direction by Henry Selick), Nightmare features creative set design to construct an imaginary world, songs by Danny Elfman and the voice talents of O’Hara, Chris Sarandon, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens and Glenn Shadix. It has become both a Yuletide and Halloween tradition for adults, kids, hipsters and Halloween fanatics.
Passing Through (1977)
A key figure in the L.A. Rebellion film movement, director Larry Clark uses Passing Through as a rumination on the central importance of jazz in African American culture and the attempts of others to appropriate this legacy for profit. Released from prison, an African American jazz artist refuses to rejoin the music industry he feels is controlled by white mobsters and corporate interests. Instead, he seeks to find his grandfather and musician mentor in order to preserve his artistic integrity and rediscover the creative and social possibilities of jazz. In an interview with the British Film Institute this year, Clark said: “Jazz is the sum total of the Black American experience. It is an expression of our history here in the United States.” Rarely seen but of seminal importance, Passing Through ranks near the top of the greatest jazz films.
Queen of Diamonds (1991)
This landmark work by experimental filmmaker Nina Menkes was filmed on location in Las Vegas. Menkes’ sister and collaborator, Tinka Menkes, plays an alienated blackjack dealer living and working in Sin City. The film takes a close look at the desolation of daytime Vegas, contrasting the lights, noise and life of the city to the quiet, lonely reality of its residents. Nina expresses her unique style through the use of long takes and extended periods of silence to convey her character’s solitary life in the Nevada desert.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Science fiction sequels sometimes fail because the original reveals the stunning main secrets, thus reducing the awe and surprise factors in future installments. Not so with this one. Cameron retained the many virtues of the original and added a deft script with more nuanced characters and plot twists, a large budget and cutting-edge special effects for an even more chilling story revealing the bleak future portended in the original. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mission changes from ending the future of humanity to ensuring its survival, from killing the mother to protecting the son from an assassin adept at quicksilver. The film also marked somewhat of a technical milestone in the transition from practical to CGI special effects.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
One of the key films of the 2000s, this offers a raw, visceral look at slavery on a Louisiana plantation. McQueen’s film is based on the 1853 memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, an African American free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before regaining his freedom. The drama also won Oscars for adapted screenplay (John Ridley) and supporting actress (Lupita Nyong’o). Plan B, Brad Pitt’s company, produced the film.
“Slavery for me was a subject matter that hadn’t been sort of given enough recognition within the narrative of cinema history,” McQueen said. “I wanted to address it for that reason, but also because it was a subject which had so much to do with how we live now.”
20 Feet From Stardom (2013)
Morgan Neville directed this fascinating documentary on backup singers, the unsung musical workhorse heroes who provide musical harmony and essential contributions to famous songs while lurking in the shadows. The film features interviews with Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer and Judith Hill interspersed with archival footage from artists such as David Bowie.
The Wedding Banquet (1993)
A ground-breaking romantic comedy, Lee’s second film focuses on the cultural clashes between East and West, traditional vs. modern lifestyles. To satisfy his parents back in Taiwan and their desire that he get married, a gay Taiwanese American immigrant in New York has a marriage of convenience with a mainland Chinese woman. Complications ensue when the parents decide to visit and meet the bride. The unconventional family trio (gay couple/paper wife) works to create a believable façade. Hilarious and poignant, the film glides effortlessly between various genres.
“I didn’t make the movie to be influential, but it was,” Lee said. “I see some major breakthroughs since the movie [was released], whether it’s cross-culture or gay issues, certainly in Taiwan and the Chinese community, because the movie was well-liked. It just eased into people’s lives quite naturally.”
May Chin in ‘The Wedding Banquet’
Samuel Goldwyn/Courtesy Everett Collection
We’re Alive (1974)
In 1974, three female UCLA graduate students, Michie Gleason, Christine Lesiak and Kathy Levitt, led a video workshop at the California Institution for Women, then the largest women’s prison in the U.S. What emerged from six months of roundtable discussions — taped by the incarcerated participants — is this 49-minute documentary of astonishing power. Simultaneously anonymous and intimate, the women are unsparing in their condemnation of the dehumanization of the carceral state while at the same time exemplifying a triumphal dignity (alive, indeed). The film is a blueprint for prison reform and thus, unfortunately, as timely today as it was then.
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