National Film Registry 2007

The Library of Congress recently announced the official selections for inclusion in the National Film Registry for 2007. Each year, hundreds of titles are nominated by the public, the National Film Preservation Board and the Library’s Motion Picture Division staff to be on the list of National Registry films. 25 are annually chosen.

"Even as Americans fill the movie theaters to see the latest releases, few are aware that up to half the films produced in this country before 1950—and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920—are lost forever," said [Librarian of Congress James] Billington. "The National Film Registry seeks not only to honor these films, but to ensure that they are preserved for future generations to enjoy."

With the passage of decades, more and more films are vanishing due to deterioration of the nitrate stock on which older films were shot, or to the more recently discovered "vinegar syndrome," which threatens the acetate-based stock on which most motion pictures were reproduced.

Among the films included are William Wyler's 1939 adaptation of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights": You can watch the entire movie on YouTube. Here's part 1:

As brooding as Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon are in this film, and even though I was an English major in college, just reading the words Wuthering Heights immediately puts in my head Kate Bush's epic hit single from the 1970s. After I heard "Running Up That Hill," I had a massive adolescent crush on this awesomely weird British chick. Most other guys my age had Heather Locklear posters on their wall. Worrying my parents, I instead went with this valkyrie girl:

Here, inhuman octaves intact, is the woman responsible for every Tori Amos song you've ever hated with a passion:


I've always suspected "Wuthering Heights" is the more literate UK version of something like Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light": a song you're ostensibly supposed to despise, but it's sure fun to sing along to in your car. "Wuthering Heights" is such an institution in Britain, some artists have enjoyed tweaking its conventions. Here's the Puppini Sisters' 1940s-esque version:

Joining Kate's "balls in a vice" high notes, young kiwi classical songstress Hayley Westenra premiered a more recent version:




What's all this then? Stop this! It's silly! Stop this silliness this instant! This is classic literature! How dare we be silly!



Now let me get in gear and badass this blog up! Here's a Tarantinoesque shout out to another 2007 National Film Registry selection - 1968's Bullitt.


You shouldn't need me or even the Drive-By Truckers to tell you how cool Steve McQueen is. I will tell that when I was sixteen years old, I had a 1969 Mustang Mach 1. 351 Windsor engine. It was a fastback model just like the '68 featured here. My Dad even had a similar Dodge Charger when I was little like the other vehicle in this most famous car chase .

I've driven on these same San Francisco streets, though not at nearly 110 miles per hour. I'm still awed even via a blog screen by how visceral this sequence is. Wuthering heights, indeed.

(By the way, if you watch all the way to the end, you'll see an actor rarely seen outside of a late 70s American sitcom.)