Though the hono(u)r was announced a few months ago, actor Christopher Lee was finally knighted in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace last week. the knighthood is a totally appropriate commendation for a CONSIDERABLE body of work that is still growing. Said body of work is well-represented here on Jaman: the little-sung horror classic Horror Hotel remains effective today, and Lee examines the legacy of the role that made him famous - Count Dracula - in the fascinating documentary In Search Of Dracula.

Congratulations, Sir Christopher!

Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police and longtime film composer, is celebrating the recent release of his autobiographical tome Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies. Your blogger cheerfully admits to being starstruck when meeting Copeland during a book signing a couple of weeks ago. Rather than enumerate the reasons why, how about a look at Copeland scores available on Jaman?

Happily there are a couple, including Ken Loach’s funny, earthy, and moving film Raining Stones:

As well as Ernest R. Dickerson’s sci-fi actioner Futuresport:

As different as they are, both films showcase Copeland’s dynamic range and knack for emotional arrangements (he’s a favored collaborator too, having worked with various filmmakers multiple times, including Loach and Dickerson). And they give you something to enjoy during the wait for Copeland’s next project, the profoundly awesome-looking Ben Hur Live, to hit a town near you!

The anthology film, a format in which several shorter stories are presented (often with a framing story for context), is a natural framework for the horror film. Given that many of the best known horror writers began with short stories (including Poe, Lovecraft, and King) the anthology horror film has literary precedents in magazines like Weird Tales.

The anthology horror film offers a nice parallel to a bag of Halloween candy: a variety of tastes, some better than others, and if the whole thing is ultimately kinda bad for you, at least it’s fun to just dive into. This being the season, Jaman is delighted to offer several anthology horror films that make ideal Halloween viewing. Indeed, the Trick or Treat segment of Visions of Horror offers a look at what you might be in for on October 31…

Meanwhile, Darna Mana Hai offers an intriguing Bollywood take on the anthology horror sub-genre. You can’t go wrong with the framing device of people telling stories around a campfire. Especially when the narrators start disappearing.

Finally, Ten Nights of Dreams is more an anthology fantasy, but we’re going to include it here because frankly it’s awesome. An imaginative film spun from the classic Japanese book by Natsume Sōseki, each of the book’s segments is realized by a different director, from veterans Kon Ichikawa and Akio Jissoji to horror masters Takashi Shimizu and Yuudai Yamaguchi.

And as always, you are extolled to pop by the Halloween thread in our Forums to let everyone know what’s spooking YOU this Halloween season!

Hot on the heels of the box-office triumph of his zombie-horror comedy Zombieland, a news item resurfaces in which Zombieland lead Woody Harrelson attacks a paparazzo, punching him in the face and destroying his camera. Harrelson’s defense: “With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie.”

I can’t believe we ever thought he was crazy. Harrelson is to be applauded for his vigilance against the zombie plague, and for stepping into an ages-old and diverse cinematic tradition in which movie characters and their real-life counterparts square off against the walking, hungry dead.

From the heroes of the Irish indie horror Dead Meat…

Dead Meat

…to the old school voodoo antics of Blood of the Zombie…

Blood of the Zombie

…to whatever the hell’s going on in Al Adamson’s amazing Blood of Ghastly Horror…

Blood of Ghastly Horror

…Jaman applauds all those taking up the fight against the zombie menace, and those who commit the tales to film.

(With thanks to Nick K. for calling the Harrelson item to my attention.)

Heck, yeah, Jaman’s blogger’s a big horror fan. Given that this month is the run-up to Halloween, it’s no surprise that horror films are running everywhere, and Jaman is certainly no exception. Our favorite bloggers are going nuts for the holiday, and the Jaman blog’ll be rife with talk of horror films, on and off the site, in freaky solidarity.

Why not hit the ground running with the seminal zombie classic Night of the Living Dead? It’s a touchstone of modern horror, and just as absorbing and suspenseful now as it was over 40 years ago.

And if you see anything on Jaman, or in theatres, or anywhere else that really freaks you out (or, as crucially, leaves you with a sense of “Oh you’re GOT to be kidding…”) how about popping into the Halloween thread in the Forums and telling us about it?

Trick and Treat, m’friends.

Hearty congratulations to producer/filmmaker/one-man studio Roger Corman, who, as announced over the weekend, will be receiving an honorary Oscar to honor his long career and hefty body of work.

In addition to a long career as a producer and director of mainly genre films, Corman has taught many of America’s leading filmmakers their craft, emphasizing creativity and resourcefulness over high-concept and large-budgets. Seriously, the list of filmmakers who apprenticed under Corman is formidable, indeed.

Jamanites around the world can enjoy one of Corman’s most entertaining cult films, A Bucket Of Blood, free on the site. Some may wonder why the maker of a film like this could ever win an Oscar; many others, we suspect, will smile and say it’s about time.

Congratulations, Mr. Corman!

Since a couple of people have sent the link our way, the story’s too good not to share:

“…(Lauren) Bacall writes on her Twitter.com page, ‘Yes, I saw Twilight - my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the ‘film’ was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a (tell-all) book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, ‘Now that’s a vampire film!’ And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead!’

We could hardly have said it better ourselves and are prouder than ever to offer F.W. Murnau’s expressionistic vampire classic (”…the greatest vampire film ever made,” according to Slant Magazine) free right here on Jaman.

2009 has proven to be a busy year for world cinema, with many of the finest filmmakers releasing new material: The Hurt Locker marked the return of the much-missed Kathryn Bigelow to theatres; I just caught Park Chan-wook’s Cannes-prize-winning vampire romance Thirst (and liked it quite a bit); and Steven Soderbergh’s forthcoming The Informant! will be his fourth film to play in US theatres this year (after both parts of Che and The Girlfriend Experience).

It is often valuable (and almost always fun) to bone up on a filmmaker’s older work before seeing their new work on screen, and the experience of the most recent work is often enriched by this prior exposure. Happily, many filmmakers now bringing out new work have films available on Jaman. As mentioned in the previous entry, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are both opening films today, and their last films, Death Proof and Planet Terror, are both newly available on Jaman. It amuses this writer to ponder the radically different ways Rodriguez’s berserk, FX-driven creativity manifests in his two films (the gore-laden and sexy Planet Terror and the family-friendly Shorts), but I don’t doubt that similar artistic flourishes can be found in both films.

I’ve also noticed that Danish filmmaker Ole Christian Madsen also has a new film premiering on US screens this week, with his WWII resistance thriller Flame and Citron opening in arthouses across the country. The film reunites Madsen with frequent collaborator (and Jaman Top Ten Star) Mads Mikkelsen, and at least one of their previous collaborations, Prague, can be screened here on Jaman as well.

Prague

Now available on Jaman are Robert Rodriguez‘ zombie opus Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s high-octane psycho thriller Death Proof.

The two films originally played together in the omnibus three-hour movie Grindhouse. For their subsequent releases, the films have been recut by their respective directors into stand-alone features. Though Grindhouse bewildered many viewers upon its release, Planet Terror and Death Proof remain delightful (and delightfully profane) B-movie masterworks. With Rodriguez and Tarantino both releasing new work in the coming weeks (Rodriguez’ FX-heavy and kid-friendly Shorts; and Tarantino’s Brad-Pitt-vs-the-Nazis spaghetti Western Inglourious Basterds) it’s the perfect time to revisit these films.

And below is Machete, a fake trailer made by Rodriguez for the Grindhouse package, and a perfect introduction to the look, feel and spirit of either film:

Has anyone ever reflected that it isn’t just STUPID that music video channels no longer run music videos, but WRONG as well? Isn’t it a bit silly that MTV spends more time showing artists’ homes than they do their videos?

The internet has pretty much overtaken music video channels for showing music video. And even though music companies are cracking down on users posting music videos without their permission, more sensible companies are setting up their own YouTube channels to show archival music videos from their artists. Though there’s still plenty that’s not available on line, there’s still several libraries worth of audiovisual wonders – I startled myself this morning by finding an Arcadia video that a friend swore existed over 20 years ago but that I never saw (directed by Russell Mulcahy, no less).

Still other titles await you over in our Forums, where a bunch of us continue to contribute to a thread created to hold our favorite music videos. Share some of yours with us!

And if, like me, you’re musically stuck in the 80s, do check out Australian Made, a lively concert documentary featuring many of Oz’s finest musicians. INXS’ performance of “Melting in the Sun” which opens the film is worth the rental fee on its own - there are other great performances from Models, The Saints, The Divynls, and I’m Talking (half of whom this 80s-loving scribe hadn’t even heard of).

Summertime means summer blockbusters, which means ubiquitous and inescapable summer blockbuster marketing. It’s rare that I let a movie I haven’t seen (and never will) obsess me, and yet certain films are made a too-present part of our landscape. One can’t simply look at a trailer, decide the movie’s missable, and leave it at that – one is bombarded with advertising tie-ins, not to mention the weird kind of peer pressure that attends The Summer Movie. One doesn’t want to miss out on a huge chunk of the cultural conversation, after all, and since the movie seems to be everywhere one might as well dive in.

And yet I can’t help but wonder how many tickets get sold every year to people who know in advance that they’re going to hate the movie they’re seeing. The summer blockbuster seems to thrive on inertia – as long as people keep buying tickets to sequels, they’re going to keep getting made. I wonder what’ll happen when people stop buying tickets to movies that, in their hearts, they don’t WANT to see. And I wonder if that day will ever come.

Complex questions surrounding films that are intended to be diversionary, sure. There’s a thread open in our Forums to talk about summer movies. Tell us about the movies that (again, in your heart) you WANT to see.

And heck, if you enjoyed a Hollywood blockbuster, tell us about that, too.

It’s been a fairly explosive couple of weeks. With history being made (and ending) every day, from the ongoing tumult in Iran to the startling death of Michael Jackson, the headlines (and indeed our collective psyche) seem very crowded indeed. But this weekend is a time of celebration for gays and lesbians, with Gay Pride festivities taking place around the world. Sunday, June 28, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the event that catapulted gay issues into the public eye and blossomed into the Pride movement, so the celebration is bound to be particularly memorable.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to what’s sure to be a lively and well-attended Pride Parade on Sunday, Frameline, the long-running gay and lesbian film festival, has screenings running throughout the weekend.

Jaman is proud, as always, to offer some of the finest gay and lesbian films. One of our favorites is Trembling Before G-d, a fascinating and moving documentary about the struggle of Jewish gays and lesbians to balance their sexuality with the teachings of their faith.

Happy Pride, everybody!