Along with Enrico Guazzoni’s epic Quo Vadis? (1912, It.) - often considered the first successful feature-length motion picture and one of the first films with over two hours running time, the influential three-hour Italian silent film from Giovanni Pastrone, Cabiria (1914, It.), was an early example of spectacular and monumental epic film-making. It laid the pattern and groundwork for future big-budget feature-length films (by the likes of D.W. Griffith - for his Judith of Bethulia (1914), The Birth of a Nation (1915), and later his Babylonian sequences in Intolerance (1916) - and Cecil B. DeMille). Its story of 3rd century BC Ancient Rome included sequences of the eruption of Mt. Etna and Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with elephants (with an early example of tracking shots). The landmark film was shot on location in North Africa, Sicily and the Italian Alps. It was also the first film to be screened at the White House.

Download Two of the Earliest Epics from Italy: Quo Vadis? and Cabiria

Jungle and aviator adventure serials were also popular. Famed animal trainer Clyde Beatty encountered the dangers of the jungles of Africa in Republic's 12-chapter serial The Lost Jungle (1934) and in the 15-episode Darkest Africa (1936). To counter their popularity, Frank (nicknamed 'Bring 'Em Back Alive') Buck starred in Columbia's 15-part The Jungle Menace (1937). One of the best jungle serials was the 15-part Jungle Girl (1941), based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and starring Frances Gifford (in her sole appearance in a serial). A submarine voyage to the underwater world of Atlantis was featured in the 12-chapter fantasy The Undersea Kingdom (1936).

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Detective-Mystery Films are usually considered a sub-type of crime/gangster films (or film noir), or suspense or thriller films that focus on the unsolved crime (usually the murder or disappearance of one or more of the characters, or a theft), and on the central character - the hard-boiled detective-hero, as he/she meets various adventures and challenges in the cold and methodical pursuit of the criminal or the solution to the crime. The plot often centers on the deductive ability, prowess, confidence, or diligence of the detective as he/she attempts to unravel the crime or situation by piecing together clues and circumstances, seeking evidence, interrogating witnesses, and tracking down a criminal. See also AFI's 10 Top 10 - The Top 10 Mystery Films and Filmsite's related Greatest Plot Twists, Spoilers, and Surprise Endings.

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Ghosts as the subject of films date back to World War II era and post-war romantic comedies. A lengthy list of films with angels in them can be found in the genre section on fantasy films. Originally, supernatural apparitions were not intended to frighten audiences, but to entertain as they assisted earth-bound characters out of crazy predicaments, or interacted with them. For example:

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Other notable, low-budget supernatural/horror films in the late 1950s through the 1970s included:

* Bell, Book, and Candle (1958), a romantic fantasy adapted from the Broadway stage comedy of the same name, with pre-Vertigo James Stewart (as a stodgy book publisher) and Kim Novak as his bewitching Greenwich Village neighbor
* The Innocents - 1961William Castle's ghost-infested B-movie House on Haunted Hill (1959), starring Vincent Price as a wealthy and eccentric man who offers $10,000 to his wife and others to survive one entire night in a ghostly manse; with decapitated heads, vats of lye, crashing chandeliers; inspired the parody Saturday the 14th (1981), and was remade in 1999
* 13 Ghosts (1960), another haunted house thriller from William Castle, memorable for its "Illusion-O" process (viewers were given the option of using ghost-viewing glasses)

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Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they include a broad spectrum of films. See also crime films, melodramas, epics (historical dramas), biopics (biographical), or romantic genres - just some of the other genres that have developed from the dramatic genre.

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Greed (1924) is one of the greatest silent films ever made, although the film was a box-office failure at the time. The 'lost' film masterpiece is a dark study of the oppressive forces that decay and corrupt three people - a simple, uneducated former miner and dentist (McTeague) in turn of the century San Francisco, his miserly, vulgar and pathological wife (Trina), and their mutual friend and McTeague's ultimate nemesis (Marcus) - all are caught up by their squalid, debased passion, compulsion and greed for gold. The wife's fixation on money causes the dentist to lose everything - he kills her, becomes maddened with the same lust for gold, then takes flight only to find himself handcuffed to his dead pursuer in the fateful conclusion. The film is a morality tale about how the characters are dehumanized by the influence of money upon their lives.

What remains of the film was directed by the ambitious, extravagant, stubborn and independent-minded Erich Von Stroheim - he spent nine months shooting the film and a total of fifteen months writing and editing it (from 1923-1924). Production costs were close to half a million dollars. [Von Stroheim is better known for his role as Gloria Swanson's butler in director Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950), and as the prison-camp commandant in director Jean Renoir's La Grand Illusion (1937-French).]

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Starring Hilary Swank
Sam Rockwell
Minnie Driver
Juliette Lewis
Melissa Leo
Peter Gallagher
While all of the above-mentioned may be fiction, sometimes it’s the truth that can lead to even more rewarding filmmaking. In Conviction, director Tony Goldwyn takes a compelling script from Pamela Gray, throws in some tremendous acting and churns out his best film yet. Although he'd only directed only three feature films prior to this one (A Walk on the Moon, Someone Like You…, The Last Kiss), he’s been heavily involved in television. Having done episodes in series including Dexter (one of the best shows on right now), Justified, Damages, Kidnapped, Law & Order and Without a Trace, directing a movie like Conviction makes sense.



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Cast
John C. Reilly as John Kilpatrick
Jonah Hill as Cyrus Fawcett
Marisa Tomei as Molly Fawcett
Catherine Keener as Jamie
Matt Walsh as Tim

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Cast:

John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Jake Weber, Kurt Fuller, Vicki Lewis, Matt Ross


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