National Film Registry's New Titles for 2006

Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, spent last year dumpster diving in world cinema's big ol' editing bin to rescue these dazzling gems from the countless turds. The following twenty-five titles were added to the National Film Registry in December 2006, bringing the total to 450 honest-to-god cinematic treasures. Chosen for their artistic merit, historic import, and cultural significance, these films will be forever preserved for your enjoyment, your children's bewilderment, and your children's children's yawning disinterest. I'm particularly appreciative of their avant-garde selections this year, especially the Harry Smith (Early Abstractions series), and spy with approving eye Halloween, Fargo, and Groundhog Day, as well. Siege sounds pretty incredible and I hope I get a chance to see it someday. Julien Bryan was stranded in Warsaw in 1939, where he documented Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg attack on the city. The subsequent film was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost on the technicality of having never been screened in theaters.

Anyhow, here they are in all their alphabetical glory:

1) Applause (1929)

2) The Big Trail (1930)

3) Blazing Saddles (1974)

4) The Curse of Quon Gwon (1916-17)

5) Daughter of Shanghai (1937)

6) Drums of Winter (1988)

7) Early Abstractions #1-5,7,10 (1939-56)

8) Fargo (1996)

9) Flesh and the Devil (1927)

10) Groundhog Day (1993)

11) Halloween (1978)

12) In the Street (1948/52)

13) The Last Command (1928)

14) Notorious (1946)

15) Red Dust (1932)

16) Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-72)

17) Rocky (1976)

18) Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)

19) Siege (1940)

20) St. Louis Blues (1929)

21) The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

22) Tess of the Storm Country (1914)

23) Think of Me First as a Person (1960-75)

24) A Time Out of War (1954)

25) Traffic in Souls (1913)

Supposedly, Peter Bogdanovich once asked Orson Welles what most disappointed him about film, to which he replied: "It's canned." Of course, he also said, "I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts." And look where that got him.