We just finished watching an old classic today - 'Blackmail' - a vintage Hitchcock from 1929, and possibly one of the earliest 'talkies' - made at a time when theaters themselves weren't really equipped to handle sound.
We watched it online - at an 'open culture' site, where several classic films are now available for viewing either online, or as downloads. This is because their rights have lapsed, thus bringing them into the public domain, and hence making them 'free' for audiences like us.
I personally found it marvelous that I was watching a Hitchcock film - FREE, LEGALLY and so simply ... no DVD, no player no rental etc etc. So thought it would be useful if I could compile a quick list of things that were in my sphere of online hunting around that could make you go 'mmmm ... or more simply, things that are for free on the internet!
This is the holy mother grail. The idea that usually springs to mind when I say free, is boring old student films that would possibly be passed over even by their own makers ... but this list of far from it. Slightly for the discerning viewer? Yes. Fun and erudite? Most definitely.
A quirky Alice in Wonderland (the B&W original) or the cartoon version of Orwell's Animal Farm (excellent) or even early masterpieces from Hitchcock, Chaplin, Polanski, Tarkovsky or even the Tarantino Man. Cary Grant, John Wayne, Mr Bogart, a certain Mr Depp or Audrey Hepburn. Even a Sherlock Holmes. There are documentaries, biographies, short films, super short films, features and animation. One of THE most amazing repositories of free films I have found online, and one I plan to keep permanently bookmarked.
PS: Keep 'open culture' marked for other stuff as well ... if you've ever been thinking of learning a language, but the effort and money of the exercise got you down - look no further than http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons
I found this far more interesting as a bank of images, news resources and also some occasional music options. But needless to say, an amazing collection of just STUFF, so although I wouldn't recommend keeping it bookmarked, it can totally help you spend away a boring hour at work. Or two.
Take a closer look at this list. Although you may be tempted to go to open culture, one thing I have to admit that these guys got done nicely was the genre-wise classification ... you almost can pretend to be in a video-store while selecting a movie to go with your pizza. Nice.
Also another thing here was the large amount of public domain TV they have stored. Besides the usual faves like 'Laurel and Hardy', 'The 3 Stooges', 'Lucy' - they also have tons of cartoons that have lapsed into the public domain ... all our old pals like Superman, Bugs Bunny, Popeye and Woody woodpecker. (click here!) All free and legal to watch!
OK, that's movies, TV, cartoons ... a bit of music ... what else am I missing??! BOOKS! Yup, several classics are also now all for 'free' (of course with a net connection that does more than just 'connect') and the above link takes to you to some truly important classics.
Ol' Will is in there, and also some surprising names - Jules Verne, Dickie boy, Mark Twain and Doyle. However I wouldn't get chai and biscuits and settle myself into a chair too early into this site - several of the links are dead, so would advise checking they do exist before you decide on a read.
Tons more book options.
So there. If you have the bandwidth to update status profiles on FB, then you've just lost your excuse of having 'nothing to watch' or 'nothing to read' ... be proud to be Indian and take full use of the free maal :-) All of course - totally within the beautiful confines of the law. Could anything be more cooler?
To close, a few more sites where you can watch more ... umm ... contemporary? stuff. Issue usually being that they are region-specific ... but nothing a dedicated VPN couldn't solve. (This could be kinda stretching those beautiful confines I was talking about earlier :-) (Virtual Private Network for the non-comp junta)
The holy grail of good TV. Everything's here. And I mean, everything.
South. Park. All. Seasons. 'Nuf. Said.
Tons others - google out ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, CN & Disney & Nick ...
Cheers folks.
Sushma
1 comment:
heheh..i'm bookmarking this post!
Post a Comment