Did you know, the first vampire movie, Nosferatu, was almost lost forever due to copyright enforcement? The filmmaker lost a decision in favor of the estate of Bram Stoker, and all known copies of the film were transferred to Florence Stoker in 1925. They were destroyed.

After Florence’s death, new copies started popping up. A classic example of something nearly lost to overzealous enforcement.

BTW, if you thinking draconian laws and requirements regarding archiving are a thing of the past, go read up on the broadcast flag.

I was scrolling through the yahoo news headline feeds today and ran across the headline “Shyamalan’s ‘Secret’ Hoax”. The article comes from an E! news feed, and details the fact that the so-called “unauthorized documentary” of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan which will run on the SciFi channel was a hoax. If you’ve seen the ads and have half a brain, you’ve already figured out that the “documentary” is really just a marketing ploy in the style of Blair Witch.

What’s surprising to me is the notion that people didn’t catch on to the setup. Did people really buy into the ad and start thinking Mr. Shyamalan is a closet monster or something?

Netflix shares plunged 25% today. I love and recommend the service, so bad news is unwelcome here.

Watched “Far from Heaven” tonight. Big thumbs up. I should add though, I don’t think the film was completely devoid of irony as so many critics reported.

So I finally saw “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” this past weekend. I liked it, thought it was good. Near great, even. I felt seriously traumatized on the way home from the theater though. My brother was driving, and I felt like I could barely speak. I think the impact was twofold. The notion of memory erasing, especially when it comes to a loved one, is just tragic. The character of Clementine kicked the crap out of me too, but more for personal reasons that anything. She physically reminded me of the woman I wanted most to marry, and emotionally of my last girlfriend. Can I get a super “argh”?

One thing I appreciated most about the movie was the dramatic use of effects. They really served to further the bizarre element of the story and confound the audience, rather than blow them back into their seats, wet themselves with glee, and utter to the dude next to them something like “That is the coolest termatrirobotcyborg I have ever seen”. If nothing else, the creativity of visual presentation in the movie as well as the story was worth the price of admission. Top it off with nice acting all around, and you’re left with a fine piece.

And I love the characterization of the technicians doing the procedure. They could have been whitecoats, but this was so much more interesting…and of course wrong.