As Ed Blank of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes in a review of The Break-Up, the tradition of photobooth photos as relationship montage is alive and well in 2006; it’s a wonder that it hasn’t gotten old yet. We’re not complaining, but have these people seen any movies before making this one?

After a montage of wacky photo-booth snapshots, which passes for the courtship, we cut straight to the stress.

We’ll see whether they’re real photobooth shots or not, and get a page up for the film once the DVD is released.

More additions from the backlog of “to do” items, this time, two films with photobooth appearances. First, Paris, Texas, one of at least three Wim Wenders films to feature a photobooth or photostrip (we’ve already got his Faraway, So Close! posted, and we’re looking for Alice in the Cities). It’s also not the only time Nastassja Kinski appears in a photostrip; her clever appearance in Terminal Velocity has also been duly noted.

Second, we have Crimen Perfecto (or Crimen Ferpecto, depending on whom you believe), a dark comic farce from Spain from a few years back. The main characters squeeze into a photobooth, though one is a lot more wiling than the other.

With a recent re-entry into the world of Netflix, I’ve got a clutch of new entries to the Movies and TV section of the site. From 1987, we begin with Best Seller, starring Brian Dennehy and James Woods. Then, we have the Philip Kaufman adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Rising Sun. Next, the teen black comedy Jawbreaker from 1999. Then, from 2001, the Adrien Brody vehicle Love the Hard Way. And who can forget Terminal Velocity, starring Charlie Sheen? And finally, we have Prom Queen, a Canadian TV movie from 2004. Rising Sun, Jawbreaker, and Prom Queen feature only photostrips, but the other three have legitimate photobooth appearances.

In addition, I came across the supposed “photo booth” sequence in the recent Land of the Dead. The oft-mentioned “photo booth” scene, which featured the men behind the recent homage Shaun of the Dead, wasn’t really a photobooth scene. I can’t think of a much better name for it, though, so I don’t blame those who described it as such in the press. It’s a brief scene featuring a “get your photo taken with a zombie” attraction at a carnival. Carnivalgoers pose in front two zombies, chained to a metal rack, as a cameraman takes a photo — it’s no photobooth, but it “zombie photo op” doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

With the announcement of the 2005 selections for the National Film Registry, the number of films with photobooth or photostrip appearances in them that have been deemed by the Library of Congress to have “cultural, historical or aesthetic significance” has risen to two out of a total of 425 on the list. 

David Holzman’s Diary (1968) was added in the registry’s third year, 1991, and this year, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) was added. 

The National Film Registry was created in 1989, and each year, 25 films are added to the list. “For each title named to the Registry, the Library of Congress works to ensure that the film is preserved for all time, either through the Library’s massive motion picture preservation program at Dayton, Ohio, or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion pictures studios, and independent film makers.”

CNN reports on an interesting feature of the latest “Dead” film from director George Romero. Edgar Wright and Shaun Pegg, the director/co-writer and star/co-writer, respectively, of last year’s zombie homage Shaun of the Dead, have cameo roles in Romero’s new film Land of the Dead. Carrying on the long tradition of the “photo booth cameo,” Wright and Pegg have a brief moment on screen as zombies at a photo booth. The IMDb entry for the film helpfully lists their official credited character names, both “Photo Booth Zombie.” We’ll be looking for the DVD release for screen captures.

Last night at the AMC Fenway Theater, we hit the photobooth trifecta. First, as we walked up the stairs to get tickets, we saw a giant banner for the film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (?), featuring a photobooth strip sticking out of someone’s massive back pocket. Second, after we bought our tickets and were on the way to the theater, a poster for A Lot Like Love that Aimee spotted, using four photobooth pictures as the poster image. And finally, ten minutes into Hitch a couple goes on a date and — what else? — spends some time in a photobooth, which we see from inside and out in a ten-second sequence. It’s getting big, people. Posters pictured here, and screencaps from Hitch will follow when it arrives on dvd.

Inspired by conceptual artist Pierre Bismuth’s nomination, alongside Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry, for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for their work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Artforum Magazine this week took a brief look at “Conceptual Art at the Oscars.”

While Bismuth’s work behind the scenes of the film has received recognition, the article points out that is has not always been so. Der Fotomatonreparateur (The photobooth repairman) by German art collective Die Tödliche Doris, is given as an example of an instance in which conceptual art has likely inspired a film (in this case, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie), but has not been recognized. 

See the Photobooths in Movies and TV entries for Eternal Sunshine and Amélie. Also check out more examples of photobooths in art.