Yeah, yeah. Totally didn't notice that today was perfect for The Invention of Hugo Cabret until I'd already used it. In my defense, I still don't have another beautiful spine on a book. George Méliès and the Lumière brothers were contemporaries and they all left their marks on film history.
But Movies in Fifteen Minutes holds a very special place in my heart. It's not technically literature but I have never laughed so hard with friends as when we'd take turns reading some of these out loud. The author has a way of taking all those vague reference you thought about and then immediately forgot and mixing them up tongue-in-cheek text that points out the hilarity and plot holes in a few well known movies.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Sorcerer's Philosopher's Stone:
Hagrid: We're off to Diagon Alley now!
Harry: How do you get there?
Hagrid: Well, you'd think that, often as I go there, I'd know exactly where to do, but...boozing takes its toll, you know. Maybe it's in this here coat closet -
Some Faun: OI! YOU PEOPLE AGAIN?
Hargrid: Crap, that's how you get to Narnia. Wait, I remember!
[Hagrid goes to a brick wall out behind the tavern and starts tapping at the bricks with his umbrella. They rearrange themselves into an opening and -]
Some young brunette: Do you know the way to the Goblin King's castle?
Some Caterpillar [in the distance]: I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO THAT WAY!
Hagrid [closing bricks]: Let's try that again, shall we?
The Lord of the Rings (All three and probably a bit more than fifteen minutes):
Bilbo: And then the trolls couldn't decide whether to boil us alive seasoned only by our own screams or to break our bones and suck the gory marrow! And then they said, "Hey, lets do both!" So they stuffed us in a sack with rabid zombie badgers, who started chewing on Bofur's head, and -
Kids: *run away screaming*
[Gandalf does his part to terrify the children with exploding butterflies and, later, a jig.]
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If you are interested in film history, I've enjoyed The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a documentary series on Netflix right now. The narrator is not my favorite but the information is amazing.