A champion of independent film has passed away. Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films, and the President of United Artists between 2001 and 2004, has passed away. Ray, who co founded October Films with Lipsky, ensured the continued support of smaller, independent films throughout the 90′s. Under Ray’s guidance, the company distrubuted films such as Del Toro’s Cronos, The Last Seduction, Breaking The Waves, The Funeral (1996), The Last Days, Three Seasons, Topsy-Turvy, and Cherry Falls. Through a series of aquisitons and sales, October Films now forms part of Focus Features, when it merged with USA Films in 2002.

Mr Ray passed away on January 23. He was 57.

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Harken back, if you will, to a brief moment in cinema history whereby a genre known as “pornography” slipped across from the dingy backrooms of sleazy screening dungeons and into the mainstream. The time of Deep Throat, perhaps the most iconic of all porn films (how on earth people fell for the misappropriation of the term “mainstream” when describing a film based solely on the concept of a woman having her clitoris in the back of her throat still staggers me!) saw a weird influence take place on Hollywood – suddenly, porn was chic. Instead of strolling down to the local cinema to catch the latest Disney animated feature, you’d ditch the kids and sneak away to catch the latest blockbuster release involving full-screen penetration and copious body fluids posing as “art”, perhaps hoping to instil in your partner a somewhat sordid level of eroticism which would lead to… well, an imitation of said film later on back home. Caligula, a film ostensibly a historical peice about a violent period on ancient Roman history, was released hanging on the combination of big-name stars and raunchy, explicit sex, most of which featured a bevy of that year’s Penthouse Pets – thanks to Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione’s input. I don’t know whether to be impressed with his balls at putting out a film this convoluted, or whether to simply cringe in embarrassment to all involved.

Click here to read more about Caligula!

Good morning folks! Just a little update for you all today: here in Australia, it’s a public holiday, so there will be no review up – instead, our warts-and-all look at Caligula will be online tomorrow. Stay tuned for that.

Some of you have noticed a significant slowdown in the load time for the fernbyfilms.com site over the last six to twelve months, and rest assured, we’re working on it behind the scenes to nullify any problems we are having. We believe it’s got to do with our cache system, and we’re investigating possible solutions as you read this. For this reason, you may see some slight aesthetic changes to the site. Some might alternatively label it as “streamlining”. Do not be alarmed. We’re working to make fernbyfilms.com as fast as possible in the online world.

We’d like to remind you all that our second Top 10 Greatest Of The Modern Age list comes online on Monday week (the 6th of February), and if it’s as popular as the previous one was, then we’re in for some great comments. We will be publishing out Top 10 GOTMA lists on the first Monday of each month, right up to December. Lock that in your diary!

Finally, as we’re expanding our readership across the Blogoverse, with fellow film lovers reading and commenting on our stuff, we want to throw something out to the casual reader right now – if you happen to stumble upon a great site (like this one! LOL!) then leave a comment somewhere! It doesn’t take much to throw a couple of kind words (or, not so kind, if you disagree with something you’ve read) the way of the author, and as bloggers, we all appreciate anybody spending even a few seconds to acknowledge our work – good or bad. If you look to the right you’ll notice a list of recent comments over in our sidebar, as well as a leaderboard of regular commentors; it’s called building a community, and since we all love films, it’s pretty obvious what that community likes to talk about, and we want your opinion. So for the lurkers and casual visitors, those landing here to capture some images or those who’ve followed a link in from iMDB or something, please leave a comment somewhere to let us know you’ve seen our stuff. You might never come back; that’s okay, you know, but we’d at least like to know you’ve been here! Of course, if you want to really show how much you’ve enjoyed our stuff, you can always click the “like” button on our facebook widget. That way you’re always up to date with our reviews!! Go on…. press it!

And of course, a big thanks to our regulars for always coming back to see what’s what! You guys are gems.

Rodney T – EIC, fernbyfilms.com

Frankly, the Academy has no idea. Drive, a film I consider to be easily the best film of 2011, missed out on virtually any Oscar nominations at all, save a filler spot for Best Sound Editing (I mean, c’mon, when you’re up against a Transformers movie, what hope to you have?) – not even Albert Brooks’ nasty turn as a gangster in that film was given so much as a nod. Instead, Melissa McCarthy now becomes an Oscar nominee for her work in the female slanted comedy Bridesmaids. Really?

And so the frustrating spectacle of seeing truly great films miss out on the Oscar glow comes around again.

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THE OFFICIAL NOMINATIONS LIST OF THE 84TH ACADEMY AWARDS

Well folks, here’s the official list (thanks to Wikipedia) of all the nominees for the 84th Academy Awards, taking place on February 26th (US time). Over the next few weeks, we’ll have our predictions on who will, should, and may win, but for now – comments flame away!!!

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I’m the first to admit that my disdain for Hollywood’s penchant for remaking classic (and not-so-classic) films from history has become something of a joke amongst the film community – everything from classic horror, drama and even drama films are being lined up for the dreaded “modernization” (or, alternatively, “updating”) for younger audiences. Typically, remakes are technically proficient yet lacking the thing that made the original truly great – that lightning in a bottle which allowed said film to transcend the dust of history to remain a true classic. Remakes have a long, sad history in Hollywood, and yet people still think it’s a good idea. Personally, I’d rather filmmakers spend time developing new ideas and stories to bring us, instead of simply recycling older films with usually less-than-impressive credentials. Having said that, I find myself in the unusual position of watching a remake of a genuine Hollywood classic, and actually finding myself thinking it’s the better film. How the hell did that happen?

Click here to get gritty!

Due to our blackout in protest against the US Congress potentially allowing censorship of the internet, our BAFTA nominations list has arrived a little later than we’d have liked – but here it is anyway! The BAFTA’s will take place on February 12th (UK time), and we’ll announce the winners here….

Click here for the complete nomination listing…