National Film Preservation Board

The National Film Preservation Board has given you some clues as to where to start if you want to build a video film collection. It's given the Library of Congress a list of 25 movies that deserve to be called "classics" because of their cultural, historiial or aesthetic significance.

It's the kind of surprise the Master of Suspense would have loved. The National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive are announcing Wednesday the discovery of the first 30 minutes of a 1923 British film, "The White Shadow," considered to be the earliest feature film in which Alfred Hitchcock has a credit. Hitchcock, who was just 24 at the time, was the writer, assistant director, editor and production designer on the melodrama, starring Betty Compson as twin sisters -- one good and one bad -- and Clive Brook.

Film Board Invites Nominations: This year, the National Film Preservation Board is inviting the general public to nominate movies for the National Film Registry. The registry, which selects up to 25 films a year, was established by Congress in 1988 to recognize motion pictures as an American art form and emphasize the importance of the preservation and protection of film.

TV & MOVIES Preservation Bound: Dustin Hoffman's 1982 cross-dressing comedy "Tootsie," Dennis Hopper's 1969 film "Easy Rider," Charlie Chaplin's 1917 silent picture "The Immigrant" and footage of a Westinghouse manufacturing plant shot in 1904 are among the eclectic group of 25 films named Monday as additions to the National Film Registry, which selects "'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant motion pictures" for preservation.

Motion Picture Assn. of America President Jack Valenti and a dozen other entertainment industry figures have been named to a new National Film Preservation Board. Created by Congress last year, the group each year will recommend to the Librarian of Congress as many as 25 "culturally significant" films for inclusion in the National Film Registry. The group can also demand that disclaimers be made if films have been colorized or "materially altered."

Fifty years after first setting foot in town, Mr. Smith has come to Washington again. The 1939 film classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was among 25 movies cited Tuesday as American movie treasures by the Library of Congress. The move was designed to bring attention to the fragility of the medium and spur wider efforts to protect its finest exemplars. The proposal to designate certain films as "national treasures" grew out of the controversy over colorizing black-and-white films.

Despite its lofty name, despite all the proclamations to the contrary, the National Film Preservation Board that Congress created last year is not about film preservation. At least not yet. The board's greatest claim to fame is its role in choosing 25 films annually over the next three years to be designated as "national treasures." What does this mean? Not much.

A total of 25 movies, from David Lean's 1962 spectacular, "Lawrence of Arabia," to an obscure 1915 silent film titled "The Italian," were added Wednesday to the Library of Congress' registry of film classics deemed worthy of preservation. "We are not in the Oscar nomination business," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "The films we choose are not necessarily the 'best' American films of any kind ever made.

DESPITE STAR-STUDDED lobbying efforts and an avalanche of publicity, little progress has been made to prevent Ted Turner and others from converting black-and-white films to color. After Woody Allen, James Stewart, Ginger Rogers and others went to Washington to try to protect their movies from the colorizers' box of paints, Congress took limited action last year. It created a National Film Preservation Board to designate as many as 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" movies each year.

Congress' decision last year to create a film preservation board failed to dampen Hollywood's internal brawls over colorizing black-and-white movies. Now those emotional battles have spilled onto the board itself. At this week's meeting of the 7-month-old National Film Preservation Board, Jack Valenti, president of the powerful Motion Picture Assn. of America, continued his fight against the creation of the board--even though he was appointed as one of its 13 members.

We at the Library of Congress were distressed to find that William F. Gibson, chairman of the national board of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, sees the recent inclusion of D. W. Griffith's 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation" in the National Film Registry as an insult to the NAACP and African-Americans in general ("Library of Congress Recognition Undeserved for 'Birth of a Nation,' " Dec. 28). There has clearly been some misunderstanding of both the Film Registry and the criteria for film preservation under that rubric.

A total of 25 movies, from David Lean's 1962 spectacular, "Lawrence of Arabia," to an obscure 1915 silent film titled "The Italian," were added Wednesday to the Library of Congress' registry of film classics deemed worthy of preservation. "We are not in the Oscar nomination business," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "The films we choose are not necessarily the 'best' American films of any kind ever made.

The National Film Preservation Board has given you some clues as to where to start if you want to build a video film collection. It's given the Library of Congress a list of 25 movies that deserve to be called "classics" because of their cultural, historiial or aesthetic significance.

Film Board Invites Nominations: This year, the National Film Preservation Board is inviting the general public to nominate movies for the National Film Registry. The registry, which selects up to 25 films a year, was established by Congress in 1988 to recognize motion pictures as an American art form and emphasize the importance of the preservation and protection of film.

Despite its lofty name, despite all the proclamations to the contrary, the National Film Preservation Board that Congress created last year is not about film preservation. At least not yet. The board's greatest claim to fame is its role in choosing 25 films annually over the next three years to be designated as "national treasures." What does this mean? Not much.

Fifty years after first setting foot in town, Mr. Smith has come to Washington again. The 1939 film classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was among 25 movies cited Tuesday as American movie treasures by the Library of Congress. The move was designed to bring attention to the fragility of the medium and spur wider efforts to protect its finest exemplars. The proposal to designate certain films as "national treasures" grew out of the controversy over colorizing black-and-white films.

We at the Library of Congress were distressed to find that William F. Gibson, chairman of the national board of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, sees the recent inclusion of D. W. Griffith's 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation" in the National Film Registry as an insult to the NAACP and African-Americans in general ("Library of Congress Recognition Undeserved for 'Birth of a Nation,' " Dec. 28). There has clearly been some misunderstanding of both the Film Registry and the criteria for film preservation under that rubric.

Congress' decision last year to create a film preservation board failed to dampen Hollywood's internal brawls over colorizing black-and-white movies. Now those emotional battles have spilled onto the board itself. At this week's meeting of the 7-month-old National Film Preservation Board, Jack Valenti, president of the powerful Motion Picture Assn. of America, continued his fight against the creation of the board--even though he was appointed as one of its 13 members.