Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Movies

Cool Finds

Great Scott! Stanford Invented a Self-Driving DeLorean Just in Time for Back to the Future Day

But does it use 1.21 gigawatts of electricity?

"I think this thing will make Beethoven," Disney once said.

Disney’s “Fantasia” Was Initially a Critical and Box-Office Failure

More than seventy-five years after its debut, a look back at the animated masterpiece

Robert Kondo, Remy in the Kitchen, "Ratatouille," 2007

The Art and Design Behind Pixar’s Animation

A new exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City draws on the rich backstory of what it takes to give computer-animated life to pen and ink sketches

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

What to Read, Watch and Download Before Your Trip to Venice

Know before you go

Cool Finds

Orson Welles Wrote a ‘Citizen Kane’ Sequel

The greatest movie never made?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit in The Walk

What Happens to Your Body When You Walk on a Tightrope?

It’s more than just an insane amount of courage that gets people on the tightwire

A scene from 1963's Jason and the Argonauts

Cool Finds

Ray Harryhausen’s Movie Memorabilia Goes Up For Auction

Sketches, models, and a treasure trove of collectibles from Hollywood’s first king of special effects

Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney, the titular "Martian" who gets left for dead on the red planet.

The Secret of “The Martian” Success? Scientific Peer Review

Andy Weir’s tale of a stranded astronaut got its start as a blog, complete with reader comments that helped shape the plot

Colorado’s ‘The Shining’ Hotel Is Finally Getting That Hedge Maze

No axes allowed

Meryl Streep's a better actress than singer, but that works to her advantage in the film.

What “Ricki and the Flash” Gets Wrong About the Life of a Musician

The new Meryl Streep vehicle is the latest in a long history of movies about bar singers

Screenshot from "A Wild Hare"

What Gives Bugs Bunny His Lasting Power?

From the moment of his first “What’s Up, Doc?” in 1940, the trickster hare has topped the list of great cartoon characters

Dorothy Arzner (left) poses with Clara Bow in a publicity shot for The Wild Party.

Cool Finds

Why Was One of Hollywood’s First Female Film Directors, Dorothy Arzner, Forgotten?

Arzner directed 20 feature films

Cool Finds

Look Up: Clouds Could be the Next Movie Screens

An abandoned military strategy leads to the first “cloud movie”

In a still from Back to the Future: Part II Marty McFly asks his son about watching too much television

The Back to the Future Movies Are Obsessed With Television, Rightfully So

The McFlys’ constant attention to the TV was a perfect reflection of life in post-war America

Cool Finds

Archivists Uncover an Unfinished Memoir By Orson Welles

Fragments of “Confessions of a One-Man Band” discovered in a newly-acquired trove of documents

Not a movie still: Fire rages on a flooded street following the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California.

What Will Really Happen When San Andreas Unleashes the Big One?

A major earthquake will cause plenty of destruction along the West Coast, but it won’t look like it does in the movies

Garrett Foshay rides the Hendo, which hovers about an inch off the ground.

The Hoverboard Fantasy Comes True, Just As “Back to the Future” Predicted

Hold onto your flux capacitors; the future is here

Crowe’s character has a mystical ability to locate hidden water.

Russell Crowe Takes a New Look at an Old Battle

The Australian actor/director’s controversial film views the legendary Gallipoli from the Turkish side

Actress Jodi Foster in 1985 with an interactive Mickey Mouse created the old fashioned way.

Cool Finds

Disney’s Getting Into 3D-Printing Soft, Cuddly Things

The world of cartoons is going to get a little realer

John Wayne's dark-green 1971 Pontiac station wagon.

Make a Pilgrimage to the Brand New John Wayne Birthplace & Museum

Opening in April, a museum to match the movie star’s legacy

Page 29 of 42