The National Recording Registry Class of 2026

I was starting to get worried that we weren’t going to hear from the National Recording Registry, but much like its sister Film Registry, better late than never. Here is the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry picks for 2026. In chronological order:

  • “Cocktails for Two” – Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1944) (single)
  • “Mambo No. 5” – Pérez Prado and His Orchestra (1950) (single)
  • “Teardrops from My Eyes” – Ruth Brown (1950) (single)
  • “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)” – Kaye Ballard (1954) (single)
  • “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” – Paul Anka (1959) (single)
  • “The Blues and the Abstract Truth” – Oliver Nelson (1961) (album)
  • “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” – Ray Charles (1962) (album)
  • “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)” – The Byrds (1965) (single)
  • “Amen, Brother” – The Winstons (1969) (single)
  • “Feliz Navidad” – José Feliciano (1970) (single)
  • “The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier” (March 8, 1971) (broadcast)
  • “Midnight Train to Georgia” – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973) (single)
  • “Chicago” Original Cast Album (1975) (album)
  • “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” – The Charlie Daniels Band (1979) (single)
  • “Beauty and the Beat” – The Go-Go’s (1981) (album)
  • “Texas Flood” – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (1983) (album)
  • “I Feel For You” – Chaka Khan (1984) (single)
  • “Your Love” – Jamie Principle (1986) / Jamie Principle/Frankie Knuckles (1987) (singles)
  • “Rumor Has It” – Reba McEntire (1990) (album)
  • “The Wheel” – Rosanne Cash (1993) (album)
  • “Doom” Soundtrack – Bobby Prince, composer (1993)
  • “Go Rest High On That Mountain” – Vince Gill (1994) (single)
  • “Weezer (The Blue Album)” – Weezer (1994) (album)
  • “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” – Beyoncé (2008) (single)
  • “1989” – Taylor Swift (2014) (album)

Other notes

  • As always, the LoC has included a playlist of all these songs for wherever you listen to music.
  • Much like his recent NFR picks, Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen has picked 25 diverse, safe choices. Nothing too controversial, just 25 picks from artists we can pretty much all agree are historically significant and worthy of inclusion. Newlen also continues the recent NRR preference of songs and albums over other types of recordings (“The Fight of the Century” is the only one of the 25 that isn’t a musical recording).
  • “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”, “Feliz Navidad”, “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” make my list of “Weren’t those already on the Registry?” songs. Also, we got two “Georgia” songs this year, plus a Ray Charles album, but not his cover of “Georgia on My Mind”. That’s a pretty major oversight if you ask me.
  • Like “Fortunate Son” and “Somebody to Love”, it’s not a movie set in the ‘60s until you hear The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)”.
  • I didn’t realize there was a “Mambo No. 5” before Lou Bega. According to the NRR press release, Bega sampled the original Prado version for his “Mambo No. 5”. Sadly, the original “Mambo” does not highlight the significant contributions of Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary, Jessica, and most importantly, you.
  • Speaking of covers, I had no idea that “Fly Me to the Moon” was a Kaye Ballard song first. Even more suprising, the Sinatra version wasn’t released until a full decade later in 1964!
  • The inclusion of Spike Jones and HIs Orchestra reminds me; when is Weird Al gonna make this list? Surely there’s room on the Registry for “Eat It”.
  • Very disappointed to learn that the “Ali vs. Frazier” fight is not, I repeat, NOT, the fight where Howard Cosell announces “Down goes Frazi-ah! Down goes Frazi-ah!” That was two years later when Joe Frazier was defeated by George Foreman. (For the record: Frazier beat Ali in “the Fight of the Century”.)
  • I always appreciate when the NRR finds room for an original Broadway cast recording, though “Chicago” is an interesting choice. If you’re going to pick a Kander & Ebb musical, why not their first breakthrough “Cabaret”? Regardless, it’s nice to see Barney Martin, aka Morty Seinfeld, now represented on both National Registries. 
  • Weezer’s debut album includes “Buddy Holly”, which has a music video that is unironically my favorite episode of “Happy Days”.
  • Last but definitely not least, the NRR’s major headline inductees this year are Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Given their massive popularity I’m surprised we’re only now getting to their NRR induction. I’ve got nothing for or against either of them (though Beyoncé gets points for being Foxxy Cleopatra), so I’ll just shrug my shoulders, nod in agreement, and move on before my indifference incurs the wrath of either of their fanbases.

As always, you can nominate recordings for consideration for next year’s induction right now! You have until October 1st, 2026, but as with the Film Registry, I recommend nominating early so that the Powers That Be know how popular both registries are with the public and renew their respective preservation acts. 

Happy Listening,

Tony

#806) Sparrows (1926)

#806) Sparrows (1926)

OR “Children of the Swamp”

Directed by William Beaudine

Written by Winifred Dunn (story), C. Gardner Sullivan (adaptation), and George Marion Jr. (titles)

Class of 2025

The Plot: Molly (Mary Pickford) is one of several orphan children living on a baby farm and forced to do labor for Mr. Grimes (Gustav von Seyffertitz). The children are unable to escape due to the farm being surrounded by a bottomless swamp, itself surrounded by a creek infested with alligators. One day Mr. Grimes purchases another baby for the farm, who unbeknownst to him is the daughter of a rich man named Dennis Wayne (Roy Stewart), who calls the police to organize a manhunt for the kidnappers. Once Grimes learns who the baby is, he plans to kill her and Molly, which prompts Molly and the children to finally attempt an escape. There’s a lot more to unpack in one of Mary Pickford’s final outings as “Queen of the Movies”.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mainly a shoutout to Mary Pickford and her role as a “key founder in the creation of the American film industry”. There’s also a detailed plot synopsis, and a shoutout to the film’s cinematography “akin to German Expressionist cinema”.

But Does It Really?: “Sparrows” gives us two NFR favorites of the silent era: Mary Pickford and child labor. While the subject matter can be hard to swallow at times, I found the film to be an effective melodrama. I haven’t cared for Pickford’s other vehicles on the NFR, but I’ll admit to caring about Molly and the children as they try to escape their plight. “Sparrows” is far from an essential American film, but it carves out just enough of a niche spot for itself that I can’t begrudge its NFR standing.

Wow, That’s Dated: As mentioned in the film’s opening text, baby farms were where children were left by their mothers (typically unwed or deserted) to be sold for slave labor. While there were several instances of these farms in the United States, it was primarily an issue in the United Kingdom (the term “Dickensian” gets thrown around a lot to describe baby farms, and that’s not far off: Oliver Twist briefly lives on a baby farm in his eponymous novel). Britain had already been cracking down on baby farms for decades by the time “Sparrows” was released, and news of baby farms in the U.S. were still making headlines in 1925. Obviously there’s a lot more to say about baby farms, but that’s as much research as I’m willing to stomach right now.

Title Track: “Sparrows” began production under the title “Scraps”, changing its name to “The Baby Farm” mid-production. The title “Sparrows” came during the film’s re-shoots, and is a reference to Matthew 10:29: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” This passage is alluded to in the movie when Molly explains to the children that God hasn’t helped them yet because he’s too busy “watchin’ every sparrow that falls”.

Other notes 

  • The version I watched was the 2020 restored print courtesy of the Library of Congress. It’s all connected, people. There is an opening text giving historical context for baby farms (which I appreciated), and a minor spoiler for the ending (which I did not).
  • When I saw director William Beaudine’s name in the credits, I knew it sounded familiar and figured he had directed one of the many other silent films on the Registry. While he does have one more movie in the NFR, it’s the 1945 sex-ed exploitation film “Mom and Dad”. Didn’t see that coming.
  • It took me a minute to realize that 33-year-old Mary Pickford is playing one of the orphans. Unsurprisingly, this is the final Pickford film in which she played a child. It’s also worth noting that Pickford’s height was somewhere in the 4’10” to 5’0” range, which helps sell the illusion that she is a child. In some scenes Pickford is literally eye to eye with her child co-stars.
  • Oof, they really layer it on thick with Mr. Grimes. Aside from von Seyfferititz’s striking German features, Grimes walks with a limp (as all evil character do in the 1920s). And in our introduction to him, he squishes one of the children’s dolls and throws it into the swamp. Come on, give me more; he’s not evil enough.
  • Grimes’ annoying son Ambrose is played by Walter “Spec” O’Donnell. I remember him as Max Davidson’s son in the NFR short “Pass the Gravy”, but really I remember that face. You don’t forget a face with that many freckles. Dear god, so many freckles.
  • The first really sad moment in the movie comes when Splutters, the kid with the stutter, is sold to a visiting farmer. As he is loaded into the farmer’s truck, the other children (hiding in the barn) wave goodbye to Splutters by sticking their hands out through the slits in the barn. I was not expecting this movie to get me like that.
  • The new baby, Doris Wayne, is played by the aggressively cute Mary Louise Miller. Seriously, she is the cutest. She’s like a proto-Shirley Temple with her adorable curly-top. You immediately hope that she and the other children will escape this misery. 
  • I was not expecting Jesus to make an appearance in this film, but here he is in what is undoubtedly his saddest NFR appearance. It’s a real downer, but this moves him up to six NFR films, which I believe is the record for film portrayals within the NFR. Take that, Lincoln!
  • As Molly and the children trudge across the swamp and a creek filled with alligators, this is a good time to mention Mary Pickford’s safety concerns for her child actors, going to great lengths to ensure they were all comfortable and taken care of during the shoot. Pickford often told a story of how director William Beaudine insisted that she carry a real baby (rather than a life-size doll) past the alligators. This was debunked by Hal Mohr, one of the film’s cinematographers, who stated, “There wasn’t an alligator within ten miles of Miss Pickford! Do people think we were crazy?”, and explained how those shots were achieved optically. What we do know is that Pickford and Beaudine clashed on the set, and Beaudine walked off the picture mid-production, leaving A.D. Tom McNamara to finish the shoot.
  • The escape from the baby farm is appropriately tense, to the point where I didn’t appreciate the weird moments of comic relief interspersed throughout. I get why they’re there, but now is not the time for pants humor!
  • This movie throws a lot at you in its third act, but I was not expecting there to be a boat chase. Shoutout to the effects team; nice model work with the boats. It’s primitive by today’s standards, but it works.
  • My one question once the bad guys are captured: Shouldn’t this be over? We get another 10 minutes of Molly and Dennis talking about what’s best for baby Doris, and it just feels like a lot of treading water. Oh well, at least we get a happy ending. 

Legacy 

  • “Sparrows” was released in spring 1926 as a double feature with fellow NFR entry “The Black Pirate” starring Pickford’s then-husband Douglas Fairbanks. The film received positive reviews, even if critics were starting to grow tired of the Mary Pickford formula.
  • According to the opening text of the 2020 restored print, “Sparrows” “helped to increase pressure to pass child welfare laws and restrict private adoptions.” I couldn’t find any specific laws that I could attribute to “Sparrows” (admittedly I was hoping a “Sparrows Act” would fall into my research lap), but the film came out when an alarming number of states were rejecting the Child Labor Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which, as of this writing, is still pending over 100 years later). Montana finally accepted the amendment in 1927, but that’s about it in terms of action taken in the immediate aftermath of “Sparrows”.
  • “Sparrows” was Mary Pickford’s second-to-last silent film, followed by “My Best Girl” in 1927. Pickford was one of the biggest casualties in the transition from silent film to talkies, quickly retiring from acting after a few unsuccessful forays into sound. Although Pickford stayed out of the limelight, she still produced a number of films and stayed involved with United Artists (which she co-founded in 1919) until the mid-1950s when she sold her shares and went into retirement. Mary Pickford died in 1979 at age 87.

#805) Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969)

#805) Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969)

OR “Pig Trouble”

Directed by Ken Jacobs

Class of 2007

The Plot: “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son” is an examination of the 1905 Biograph short of the same name, loosely based on the nursery rhyme. A boy named Tom (Actor Unknown) steals a pig from a local fair and is chased by the townspeople, who eventually catch him when he tries to hide in a well. But wait a minute, that’s only the first 12 minutes of this movie, there’s still about 100 minutes to go. What now? Well, Ken Jacobs has got you covered. The rest of the runtime is replaying the short almost frame by frame; freezing and holding specific frames, zooming in on hard-to-see details, and jumping around from scene to scene with no particular rhyme or reason. If you’ve been able to handle the Registry’s other experimental films, this one might break you.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “a landmark of experimental cinema” and “a ‘structuralist film’ masterpiece.”

But Does It Really?: Oh man this one was a lot. Watching the original short was a slog in and of itself, but another hour plus of frame by frame experimentation was brutal. Still, I’m a sucker for found footage, and researching this post has led me to appreciate Ken Jacobs and where he fits into the history of experimental film. A slight pass for “Tom, Tom”, but this is another NFR entry that may just be for us completionists.

Everybody Gets One: Ken Jacobs’ medium of choice was originally abstract painting before he pivoted to experimental film in the mid 1950s. As the years went on, Jacobs’ films relied more and more on found footage rather than original material (allegedly because of Jacobs’ difficulties with actors). While teaching film at St. John’s University, Jacobs watched a print of silent shorts, including Biograph’s “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son”. Unfamiliar with the nursery rhyme, Jacobs was confused by the film, which inspired him to do a deep dive. Jacobs and his colleague Jordan Meyers projected “Tom, Tom” onto a translucent screen, filming the images with a 16 mm camera as they adjusted the print. Although completed in 1969, Jacobs would continue to tweak and refine “Tom, Tom” well into the 2000s.

Title Track: For the curious: 

Tom, Tom, the piper’s son,

Stole a pig and away did run.

Tom run here, Tom run there,

Tom run through the village square.

The more common version involves Tom eating the pig and then getting beaten, but the film mercifully spares us that version of the rhyme.

Other notes 

  • Readers of my “Serene Velocity” post may remember my promise to follow-up on structural film and paper prints in this write-up. Paper prints are a positive print of a film on paper, and were used to submit films to the Library of Congress for copyright purposes from the 1890s through the 1910s. Starting in the 1960s, the Library of Congress began using these positive prints to create new negative prints of these early films, leading to their resurgence and revival among film purists. Ken Jacobs was one of many experimental filmmakers of the era who would use these new prints as elements in their experimental/structural films. 
  • There is very little information out there about the original 1905 short “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son”. The only name I can confirm that worked on the film is its director G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, represented elsewhere on the NFR as the cinematographer of several other Biograph titles (including “Rip Van Winkle”) as well as three D. W. Griffith features.
  • Jacobs was confused by the opening tableaux in which Tom steals a pig amidst a busy fairground, to the point where he didn’t even realize that the pig had been stolen until a repeat viewing. I side with Jacobs on this one: There is way too much going on in this opening. Tom doesn’t even steal the pig until three minutes in! Get on with it!
  • The most distressing part about this whole thing is that the pig being used in the film is clearly a real pig. There’s a lot of Tom rolling around on the ground and jumping from rooftops, all while holding a real pig. Stop that! Where’s PETA when you need them?
  • The short is comprised of eight scenes (or “tableauxs”), and each of them take their sweet-ass time. The scene that almost broke me is a static shot of Tom escaping his house through the chimney, followed by the entire mob also climbing out from the chimney one by one. This goes on for two uninterrupted minutes. It must have been a lot easier to entertain back then.
  • Once the short ends, we begin with our experimentation. Jacobs’ first alteration is zooming in on the opening scene, which frankly is an improvement. Like I said, there’s too much going on at the fair, so the film actually benefits from the cropped footage of Tom and the pig. I could focus more on what was happening.
  • Warning: As this is a structural film, there is a lot of flickering going on. Those of you with light sensitivity may want to skip this one.
  • After several minutes of the film strip jumping in the projector gate, making a sped-up/elongated version of the film, Jacobs returns to zooming in on various moments within the film. It’s mostly background extras and little details you would only notice on your 1,000th viewing. It makes you wonder why anyone would subject themselves to this. If you’re going to go through a movie frame by frame, why this one?
  • As far as NFR movies that are an experimental tampering of other movies, I gotta say “Rose Hobart” did it better (or at least in a fraction of the time).
  • Keep watching for a few brief color shots of the screen Jacobs and Meyers viewed the film on, with a plant poking out from behind the screen. Then later on we get more original footage as Jacobs and Meyers resort to shadow puppets!
  • At one point they zoom in so close that the film begins to look like a Rorschach test. I didn’t realize “Tom, Tom” contains so many shots of my parents yelling at each other. 
  • After a solid hour and a half of experimental tinkering, we conclude with the original “Tom, Tom” short presented once again in its unaltered entirety. By this second viewing you’re so familiar with the short it makes for a completely different viewing experience. One thing I noticed during this second viewing, what happened to the other kid? The one in the striped pants that was running with Tom? The last we see him he hops out the chimney with Tom, and then he’s gone for the rest of the short. Did the adult mob get him and rip him apart in a reverse-“Weapons” scenario?

Legacy 

  • Ken Jacobs continued making experimental films for the rest of his life, including 2004’s “Star Spangled to Death”, a seven-hour critique of America using only found footage. Jacobs died in October 2025 at age 92, and his final film “Let There Be Whistle Blowers” posthumously premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2026.

#804) Before Sunrise (1995)

#804) Before Sunrise (1995)

OR “Lovers and Other Strangers on a Train”

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Linklater & Kim Krizan

Class of 2025

The Plot: While on a train traveling through Austria, American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) strikes up a conversation with French Céline (Julie Delpy). The two have an instant rapport, and Jesse convinces Céline to get off the train with him upon its arrival in Vienna. Over the course of a day, the two walk around Vienna, learning about each other and having deep conversations about love, pain, gender, death, and everything in between. With Jesse’s pending flight back to America in the morning, how deep will their newfound relationship go…before sunrise?

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a salute to Linklater and “[h]is innovative use of time as a defining and recurring cinematic tool”. The film gets a shout-out as “one of cinema’s most sustained explorations of love and the passage of time”.

But Does It Really?: Richard Linklater is one of those filmmakers who should have multiple entries on the NFR, and “Before Sunrise” is a good choice. I had never seen “Before Sunrise” prior to its NFR induction, and overall I enjoyed its lowkey vibe and the chemistry between Delpy and Hawke. Above all, “Before Sunrise” made me nostalgic for the impulsivity of your early 20s when you know everything and can go anywhere, a feeling this movie captures perfectly. As another standout in Linklater’s filmography, and the first in a surprise trilogy, “Before Sunrise” earns its NFR status.

Everybody Gets One: Linklater spent nine months trying to cast his two main characters before finding Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Julie Delpy was born in Paris to artistic parents and began acting at a young age in such films as “Europa Europa” and Krzystof Kieślowski’s “Three Colours” trilogy. Ethan Hawke also started off as a child actor in Joe Dante’s “Explorers”, and was initially reluctant to pursue an acting career until his supporting turn in “Dead Poets Society” led to more acting opportunities. Both actors were segueing into more adult roles when “Before Sunrise” came their way. Fun Fact: Because I had to put this somewhere, Ethan Hawke directed the music video for Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You)”. It’s incredibly random until you learn that Loeb was a member of Hawke’s Malaparte theater company in the 1990s.

Wow, That’s Dated: I imagine this whole movie would have been quite different if both Jesse and Céline had smart phones. If nothing else, they could exchange contact information quickly and/or stalk each other on social media.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations, but “Before Sunrise” received an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Kiss, losing to Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly for “Dumb and Dumber”. Both “Before” sequels received Oscar nominations for their screenplays.

Other notes 

  • When we last saw Richard Linklater on this blog he was coming off the cult success of “Slacker”. After his next movie, 1993’s “Dazed and Confused” (which should be on the NFR, right?), Linklater wanted to base a movie on a night he spent in 1989 wandering the streets of Philadelphia with a woman he had just met. Knowing his script needed a strong female perspective, Linklater hired Kim Krizan (an actor in his previous films) to co-write the screenplay, despite her never having written a script before. Krizan had had a similar romantic experience years earlier while riding trains across Europe, and the final script was an amalgamation of these two stories. Claims that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy re-wrote all of their dialogue has been disputed by Krizan, though let the record show that both actors receive screenwriting credits on the sequels.
  • Jesse’s idea for a cable access show that follows people around is basically “The Truman Show” on a global scale. Are you listening, Peter Weir?
  • My first takeaway from this movie’s train scenes is that the film is a more focused version of “Slacker”. It’s still a series of philosophical vignettes like “Slacker” was, but now each vignette centers around the same two characters, allowing us to delve deeper and care more about these characters.
  • Is this what people think backpacking through Europe looks like?
  • I get where the screenplay authorship questions come into play, because this all sounds very natural. As far as I know, everything in this film was scripted, down to the pauses and the overlapping dialogue. This is a Cassavetes-level of natural film acting, easily the hardest type to pull off, and Hawke and Delpy do it with ease.
  • Linklater very quickly applies an important filmmaking rule: If you’re going to have a lot of talking scenes, stage them with a lot of movement. Whether it’s on a train or a trolley car or just two characters walking, the background is always changing, which helps keep things visually interesting as all these philosophical ideas get tossed around.
  • I was wondering if Jesse and Céline were going to take the “Sound of Music” tour, but then I remembered that’s Salzburg, not Vienna, so never mind.
  • As the author of a film blog it is my duty to point out that the ferris wheel Jesse and Céline ride on is the Wiener Risenrad, the same one from “The Third Man”. Do with that information what you will.
  • Jesse and Céline take in a game of pinball while discussing their past relationships. This begs the question: Why pinball? This is the most important conversation they’ve had up to this point, and you’re practically muting it with pinball? That’s a choice.
  • Céline’s American “dude” accent made me laugh. No further observation, just an amusing moment as this movie rounds the corner into its third act.
  • The other thing this movie makes me nostalgic for is the kind of deep late night conversations you have with friends. Good times.
  • I’m glad that after all this talk Jesse and Céline are finally entertaining the notion of hooking up. That was driving me nuts the whole movie: they’re in their early 20s, they’re in Europe, and they’ve shared plenty of emotional intimacy. How are they not getting it on like rabbits?
  • [Spoilers] Aaaaugh that ending. After much hesitation, Jesse and Céline agree to meet at the train station in six months’ time without exchanging information. It’s equal parts romantic and frustrating. Imagine seeing this in 1995 and leaving the ending at this without knowing that there will one day be sequels. On a more positive note: This may be the last movie to feature a tearful farewell at a train station, a cinematic mainstay of the ‘40s and ‘50s. I assume it was replaced by “dramatically running through the airport”.

Legacy 

  • “Before Sunrise” premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, just a few days before its general release. The film was a modest hit, and went over like gangbusters with critics (it currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and found continued success over the next few years thanks to home video and TV airings.
  • While there was no overwhelming demand for a sequel from audiences, Linklater and his two lead actors all expressed interest in the idea over the years, culminating in “Sunrise” being the first in a trilogy! 2004’s “Before Sunset” reunites Jesse and Céline nine years after the events of “Sunrise”, and 2013’s “Before Midnight” catches up with them after another nine year time jump, each time examining their evolution as people and their relationship with each other.
  • Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy cameo as Jesse and Céline in Linklater’s animated film “Waking Life”, elaborating on conversations they had in “Before Sunrise”. Where this fits into the continuity of the “Before” films I have no idea.
  • Richard Linklater’s immediate follow-up to “Before Sunrise” was 1996’s “SubUrbia”, and he has continued cranking out movies for the last 30 years, including several collaborations with Ethan Hawke (“Boyhood”, “Blue Moon”, etc.). Personally, I’m looking forward to Linklater’s most ambitious time concept yet, an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along” filmed over the course of 20 years. See you in the early 2040s!

The NFR Class of 2006: SexyBack

December 27th 2006: The Library of Congress gives the world a belated Christmas/Hanukkah present (or a right on time Kwanzaa present) with 25 more films on the National Film Registry, making it a total of 450 movies. Here now for the 20th anniversary is the Class of 2006 (with selections from my posts on each film):

Traffic in Souls (1913): “a heavy-handed, oft-confusing film”

Tess of the Storm Country (1914): “I have nothing to say about this film. It happened, I saw it, I can cross it off the list. Moving on.”

The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916/1917): “written and directed by a Chinese woman, a rarity of both ethnicity and gender.”

Flesh and the Devil (1927): “helped launch [Greta] Garbo’s star.”

The Last Command (1928): “a fine showing for [Josef] von Sternberg, but can it stand on its own as a classic?”

Applause (1929): “the film’s usage of its soundtrack…is downright revolutionary by 1929 standards.”

St. Louis Blues (1929): “the only existing footage of Bessie Smith.”

The Big Trail (1930): “a unique enough curio in film history to warrant a spot on the NFR.”

Red Dust (1932): “[Clark] Gable and [Jean] Harlow are irresistible together”

Daughter of Shanghai (1937): “an underrated, largely forgotten film that was vastly ahead of its time.”

Early Abstractions #1-5, 7, 10 (1939-1956 or 1946-1957): “a seven-part collision of art, film, shapes, and music.”

Siege (1940): “an on-the-ground account of [World War II’s] first two weeks.” “lightning in a bottle documentation”.

Notorious (1946): “an excellent example of [Hitchcock’s] signature style.”

In the Street (1948): “a unique collaboration between three people who, as far as I know, had never made a movie prior to this.”

A Time Out of War (1954): “proved there was an audience for [student] films outside of the classroom.”

Think of Me First as a Person (1960-1975): “strikes the right tone with its delicate subject matter”

The T.A.M.I. Show (1964): “the greatest American film ever made, and I will fight you on this one.”

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-1972): “a sort of film collage…[with] an emotional story at this film’s core.”

Blazing Saddles (1974): “my favorite Mel Brooks movie”, “uproariously funny”.

Rocky (1976): “gave the world something that had been missing from the ‘70s movie scene: Hope.”

Halloween (1978): “an effectively scary movie”, “a fresh 90-minute adrenaline rush”

sex, lies, and videotape (1989): “an erotically charged character study with a well-cast ensemble.”

Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter (1989): “an engaging glimpse at an oft-ignored culture.”

Groundhog Day (1993): “may in fact be a perfect movie”.

Fargo (1996): “one of [the Coen brothers’] more accessible, twistedly funny films.”

Other notes

  • This is one of the more extreme NFR rosters I’ve come across. We only get a handful of heavy-hitters this time (The inclusion of “Rocky” starts getting us into “How was that not already on the list?” territory), but this class is comprised mainly of obscure shorts and deep cuts. An eclectic group, if not the most outstanding. Still, it has one of my favorite movies (“Blazing Saddles”), plus a new favorite I watched for the first time for this blog (“The T.A.M.I. Show”. Seriously, it’s great).
  • One common thread I noticed this time around is how many of these films circle around the steamier aspects of love and sex. We get multiple entries with love triangles, extra marital affairs, sex workers, one night stands, and a few doomed romances for sentimental sake. Every NFR class has a few of these elements, but it seemed to be a dominant theme this time.
  • Not much new in the official Library of Congress press release, but Dr. James Billington makes his annual plea for film preservation, including mention of the recently discovered “vinegar syndrome”, which greatly effects acetate-based “safety film”. I imagine this is why so many documentaries and amateur films are included this go-round; to highlight the increased fragility of these lesser-known titles.
  • Much like the extreme genre selections in the Class of 2006, my responses to these moves run the gamut from “I adore this movie” to “I am so over this movie.” Despite my objections, most of these films got a pass from me for their NFR inclusion. 
  • The “Red Dust” post introduced one of my favorite bits on the blog: the Clark Gable Prize for Best Reaction to Being Shot. I’m surprised how often it comes up on this blog.
  • Once again, I question how “Think of Me First as a Person” made the NFR only four months after its official premiere. That is not a knock against the movie, which I thought was great, but we have a technicality on our hands and I want to know who’s responsible for this. Looking at you, NFPB member Dwight Swanson. Don’t think I forgot about you!
  • A few double dippers this year: Actors Evelyn Brent, Andie McDowell, and Tully Marshall, cinematographer Arthur Edeson, and producer Irving Thalberg.
  • Among the thematic double-dippers (aside from all the love/sex ones listed above): movies that spawned franchises, struggling immigrants, Hollywood studio gate crashing, movie stars in their breakout roles, positive Asian representation, Black entertainers performing their hits, wartime trauma, personal documentaries, and people stuck where they are due to weather.
  • One coincidence worth noting: Two of our filmmakers – James Agee and Terry Sanders – worked on another future NFR entry: “The Night of the Hunter”; Agee as screenwriter, Sanders as second unit director.
  • Speaking of “Night” movies, “Night at the Museum” was number one at the US box office when the Class of 2006 was announced. Also playing in theaters at the time was “Rocky Balboa”, the fifth sequel to concurrent NFR inductee “Rocky”. Other noteworthy films include “Happy Feet”, “Casino Royale”, “Borat”, “The Departed”, “Dreamgirls”, and a 3D re-release of “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.
  • And finally, some favorites of my own subtitles: Squatter Knows Best, Garbo Cheats!, From Russia Without Love, Kitty Foiled, Harlow If You Hear Me, Showtime Near the Apollo, Life with Mikey, Spader Neutered, and all the various “Groundhog Day” subtitles.

The Class of 2007 should be coming soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and please keep taking care of each other.

Tony