Disney within Disney I was expecting a standard, manufactured Disney Princess item. What I encountered was a powerful embodiment of myth in a young woman, with the notable exceptions of the coconut pirate and glittery crab sequences. These were conceived and directed by others. I suppose many commenters will speak to the different appealing techniques… Continue reading Moana (2016)
Category: Fours
Films rated FOUR stars out of three (essential for cineliteracy)
King Lear (1987)
English Recursion Meets French Semiotics Lear is about sight and truth, and incidentally about how devilish charms (derived from the audience’s participation and perception) bend sight and truth. So it (and the similarly placed ‘The Tempest’) are naturals for film, especially self-referential films about films and filmmaking. Self-referential filmmaking is an art that the French… Continue reading King Lear (1987)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Glorious Absinthe Prostitution This film is crafted of many common narrative elements: The rich cad versus the poor lad for the girl (with the conceit that love is unavailable to the wealthy ‘unreal’ class) The girl who must renounce her love to save her lover (only to lose her own life) The notion of players… Continue reading Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Four Layers There’s no shortage of intelligent work in film. But here we have one of the most complexly referential things I’ve ever seen. Simple self-reference points to itself. Common self-reference points to the viewer defining the experience. But Mingus used to say why have three threads when you can have seven? Here, some of… Continue reading Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Oscar and Lucinda (1995)
Obsession, Compulsion This is one of my favourite movies. Regular readers of my comments will wonder why I elevate it to my “must see” category Part of the reason I want you to see it is because of how well it pairs with Cate’s masterpiece, “Heaven.” Now, that film can stand on its own as… Continue reading Oscar and Lucinda (1995)
It (1927)
Invention I have put this film on my list of required viewing for cineliteracy. The reason is obvious: here we have the creation of a persona that changed the world of film and indeed the world. I believe that the relationship between film reflecting society and inventing it is complex, but in some cases the… Continue reading It (1927)
Hiroshima Mon Amor (1959)
The Pull of Connection I saw this thirty or so years ago. I don’t remember it moving me profoundly, but then so many things at that age routinely inject you with massive change without you knowing. Seeing it now gives me great, great appreciation for what it is. And though I have been previously exposed,… Continue reading Hiroshima Mon Amor (1959)
Enter the Void (2009)
Tomorrow Never Knows One of our next great filmmakers, yet another South American, makes a film about French filmmaking. That once great tradition was compromised in the sixties by a burst of non-sustainable creativity that ate itself. A decent enough metaphor is that cinema overdosed on introspective drugs. Now we get a film that both… Continue reading Enter the Void (2009)
Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980)
Doubts that Bind Love is internal. It is sustained by questions of doubt, tension, expectation. The solidity of the hand is strengthened by the slipperiness underfoot. So suppose you wanted to make a film about the fields that animate your anchor relationships. You couldn’t do what everyone else does: deal with the tokens: the looks,… Continue reading Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980)
2046 (2004)
Gloved Hand If Welles, Tarkovsky and Kurosawa are the three past masters. Greenaway, Medem and Kar-Wai are the three greatest living filmmakers. All three weave incredibly deep and personal stories which bleed into the act of their creating the film. Each create striking images that resonate deeply, far beyond mere metaphor or exposition. Each worry… Continue reading 2046 (2004)