The Dark Knight, Grease among films inducted

WASHINGTON • As the often-quoted line from The Dark Knight (2008) goes: "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Now, a more respectable immortality awaits this Batman blockbuster from director Christopher Nolan, which earned late actor Heath Ledger a posthumous Academy Award for his performance as the Joker.

It is among the memorable motion pictures, along with Shrek (2001), The Joy Luck Club (1993) and Grease (1978), that have been chosen for preservation this year on the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

The library made its annual announcement yesterday that it has selected a new roster of 25 films, from 1913 to 2010, that will be honoured for their historical and cultural significance and added to this registry, helping to preserve them for future generations.

Those selections include milestone films like Lilies Of The Field, the 1963 drama for which Sidney Poitier became the first black man to win Best Actor at the Oscars; and The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's 2008 war drama for which she became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar.

This year's list also includes Kid Auto Races At Venice, the 1914 Keystone Studios comedy that was the first released film to feature English comic actor Charlie Chaplin playing the character of the Little Tramp.

Commercial hits like the animated Shrek and the musical Grease have been chosen as well.

The library noted that this year, it had added nine films directed or co-directed by women. It said seven films from people of colour were also selected, including Freedom Riders (2010), Stanley Nelson's documentary about 1960s civil rights activism in segregated America.

Additional films include Otto Preminger's drug-addiction drama The Man With The Golden Arm (1955), which starred Frank Sinatra; A Clockwork Orange (1971), Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the dystopian Anthony Burgess novel; and Wayne Wang's The Joy Luck Club, adapted from the Amy Tan novel.

The Library of Congress said in a statement that these additions brought the total number of titles on its preservation registry to 800.

Films must be at least 10 years old and "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" to be considered.

Nominations can be made by the public and selections are made by Ms Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress.

NYTIMES