January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all
&gt; Jan 1, 2023 will also be a fine day for film in the public domain, with Metropolis, The Jazz Singer, and Laurel and Hardy&#x27;s Battle of the Century entering the commons. Also notable: Wings, winner of the first-ever best picture Academy Award; The Lodger, Hitchcock&#x27;s first thriller; and FW &quot;Nosferatu&quot; Mirnau&#x27;s Sunrise.<p><i>Metropolis</i> is so influential that I&#x27;d call it a must-watch for... well, basically any fan of popular media of any kind. Film, literature, graphic arts, video games, music(!). Its influence is everywhere.<p><i>Sunrise</i> is one hell of a roller-coaster of a movie. As with anything in the silent era (especially the non-comedy films) it&#x27;s a bit of an <i>acquired taste</i> but it&#x27;s among the earliest films that I didn&#x27;t just find interesting or funny, but that really got me on the edge of my seat, several times. It&#x27;s got some real &quot;yell at the screen&quot; moments :-) I enjoyed it way more than the director&#x27;s more-iconic <i>Nosferatu</i>. Though, for my money, it&#x27;s no <i>M</i> or <i>The Passion of Joan of Arc</i>, as silent film dramas go. Still, really good, and I think a lot of critics hold it in far higher regard than I do.<p>Haven&#x27;t seen the rest.<p>&gt; On the literary front, we have Virginia Woolf&#x27;s To The Lighthouse, AA Milne&#x27;s Now We Are Six, Hemingway&#x27;s Men Without Women, Faulkner&#x27;s Mosquitoes, Christie&#x27;s The Big Four, Wharton&#x27;s Twilight Sleep, Hesse&#x27;s Steppenwolf (in German), Kafka&#x27;s Amerika (in German), and Proust&#x27;s Le Temps retrouvé (in French).<p>Damn, what a powerhouse year in literature. And look at that, my favorite novel (<i>To the Lighthouse</i>) is about to be public domain!<p>The Holmes news is awesome, too. Bunch of copyright troll dicks have been making doing anything with Holmes risky for years. Great that everyone can more-easily ignore them.