Moving Pictures was a television series devoted to film that aired on BBC 2 from 1991 to 1996. It was presented by Rock Follies screenwriter Howard Schuman.
Each program was composed of several short films on different cinematic subjects and not necessarily on current releases. Although it never achieved high ratings, Moving Pictures was frequently used to teach film studies. Interviewed on the set of Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino told John Travolta it was the best show about movies on television. Director Mike Figgis credited a film about himself with salvaging his career after it showed the other side of the story regarding the making of his film Mr. Jones.
The series finished in 1996, largely due to the huge cost of paying for film clips, but excerpts from it have since appeared as supplementary material on DVD releases. The Criterion Collection editions of Chungking Express and Straw Dogs include Moving Pictures documentaries on Wong Kar-Wai and Sam Peckinpah respectively.
Famous quotes containing the words moving and/or pictures:
“O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; but all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places.”
—Thomas Traherne (1636–1674)
“When lions paint pictures men will not always be represented as conquerors. When women translate laws, constitutions, bibles and philosophies, man will not always be the declared heard of the church, the state, and the home.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815–1902, U.S. women’s rights activist, author, editor. The Revolution (August 13, 1868)