National Film Registry makes a 2016 list for the ages including 'East of Eden,' 'The Birds,' more

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National Film Registry makes a 2016 list for the ages including 'East of Eden,' 'The Birds,' 'Thelma & Louise' and more

By Christie D'Zurilla•Contact Reporter

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December 14, 2016

The National Film Registry’s Class of 2016 has arrived, bringing to 700 the number of titles in the collection of “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant motion pictures. ... Get this: It’s loaded with millennials.

Ten of the 25 films selected by the librarian of Congress this year were born after 1980, including familiar titles such as “The Breakfast Club,” “The Lion King,” “Thelma & Louise,” “The Princess Bride” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
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“The Birds,” “Blackboard Jungle,” “East of Eden” and “A Walk in the Sun,” which came out in 1963, 1955, 1955 and 1945, respectively, are among the baby boomers in the group. “Point Blank,” “Funny Girl” and Robert Downey Sr.’s “Putney Swope,” released in 1967, 1968 and 1969, respectively, fill the list’s Gen X ranks. And the original 1916 incarnation of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” serves as a reminder that culture needn’t always be parsed by generation.
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The balance of the 25 titles — including shorts, documentaries and silent films along with the higher-profile comedies and dramas — are: “The Atomic Cafe” (1982), “Ball of Fire” (1941), “The Beau Brummels” (1928), “The Decline of Western Civilization” (1981), “Life of an American Fireman” (1903), “Lost Horizon” (1937), “Musketeers of Pig Alley” (1912), “Paris Is Burning” (1990), “Rushmore” (1998), Solomon Sir Jones films (1924-28), “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (1928) and “Suzanne, Suzanne” (1982). ... In addition to the registry, the Library of Congress has 1.3 million items in its motion-picture collection.

National Film Registry honors ‘Breakfast Club,’ ‘Rushmore’ and other teen angst movies

By Michael O'Sullivan

December 14

Whether she likes it or not, director Penelope Spheeris may be forever associated with “Wayne’s World,” her 1992 feature comedy based on a series of “Saturday Night Live” sketches about two high-school metalheads (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey). “I’ve always said, when I’m dead and gone, if there’s anything I could be remembered for, I would want it to be my ‘Decline’ films,” she says, referring to her series of three documentaries on youth subcultures. “That would be the greatest honor.”

Spheeris is now one step closer to that dream. ... On Wednesday, the Library of Congress announced that the first film in Spheeris’s “The Decline of Western Civilization” trilogy — a controversial look at the burgeoning Los Angeles punk rock scene — was one of the 25 films selected for inclusion in the 2016 National Film Registry. Reached by phone, Spheeris described herself as “astonished” at the inclusion of her 1981 low-budget film, which she calls “one of the most written-about films of that year,” despite the fact that “no one saw it.”

Including performances by such bands as X, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and Fear — and featuring slam-dancing mosh pits so rambunctious that Spheeris’s cameraman, Steve Conant, jokingly requested a “shark cage” for his own protection — the film shocked the bourgeoisie, and delighted the counterculture, upon its release. The title of the film, she explains, was meant ironically. By the time “Decline 3” came out, with its sobering look at homeless teenagers known as “gutter punks,” Spheeris says the series had “grown into its name.”
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Films selected for the 2016 National Film Registry

●Atomic Cafe (1982)
●Ball of Fire (1941)
●The Beau Brummels (1928)
●The Birds (1963)
●Blackboard Jungle (1955)
●The Breakfast Club (1985)
●The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
●East of Eden (1955)
●Funny Girl (1968)
●Life of an American Fireman (1903)
●The Lion King (1994)
●Lost Horizon (1937)
●The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
●Paris Is Burning (1990)
●Point Blank (1967)
●The Princess Bride (1987)
●Putney Swope (1969)
●Rushmore (1998)
●Solomon Sir Jones films (1924-28)
●Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)