Category: Threes

Flight Assembly I am not a student of Hong Kong martial arts movies, just someone who dips into the accessible ones. My interest is in the cinematic experience, and that depends to a large extent on how the camera is choreographed. It doesn’t matter to me how elaborate the effects of the people and objects… Continue reading Iron Monkey (1993)

Photos I have a growing respect for Jess Franco. Some of his stuff is rather clever. But to my mind, this is much better. It doesn’t suffer from that Spanish notion of the scowling bigbreasted vamp. And it has some moody photography when it is not busy “shocking” us. How this is put together is… Continue reading Island of Death (1978)

A Trip to Holy Ground Ridley Scott is the current and all time master of the big budget long form film, no question. Most big budget productions are really collections of episodes. Few filmmakers have the control to manage the hoards of creative talent that are involved in these efforts. (Jackson and Lucas depend on… Continue reading Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Who Knows? There i s nothing more invigorating like true noir, and there are very, very few of those. This is one that ranks with “Touch of Evil“ and “The Long Goodbye.” Good noir is not a matter of tough talk and dark shadows. It is a matter of the writer apparently losing control to… Continue reading Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Lubricated Blade There is nothing more thrilling than discovering a natural filmmaker for the first time. There are only so many, and you can only have cinema menarche once. It is an introduction into another life. I first saw this in 1965 at the Orson Welles Cinema near Harvard Square. We were told it was… Continue reading Knife in the Water (1962)

Wittgenstein’s Gaudi Chapel While the world relaxed and enjoyed itself between wars. When art was a solitary and experimental endeavour. When Europeans rediscovered the power of nature in sex and in some cases the other way around. When lives really could be deep, and debauched and intelligent too, three men came out of Vienna: Freud… Continue reading Klimt (2006)

Situations Okay, I’ve been through both edits of this now, after recommendations from several readers. I get what he is trying to do. I am writing as someone who prefers the Cannes edit of ‘Brown Bunny’ and who eagerly sat through 3 1/2 hours of ‘The Falls’. I think this is a failure, a failure… Continue reading Margaret (2011)

The Cleansing Timing is everything. I saw this in a stressed state, looking for escape. I saw it in a grand old theatre with large, excellently tuned equipment. I saw it not knowing anything at all about it. And I loved it. Yes, I know people do not like Nic Cage. And I know many… Continue reading Knowing (2009)

Dorm Room Trifles I saw this at the Melbourne International Film Festival. It was fantastic in large part because it was new. I saw it paired with “Theater of War,”, whose idea was that little people enable unhealthy societies. That film presumed that structure in film and theater was what powered narrative in individuals and… Continue reading Action Boys (2008)

Watchers Excepting Snowpiercer, this filmmaker has a distinct style. He surveys watchers and watching by creating and weaving layers. So far as I know, this is his masterwork. This filmmaker sees differently. He sees people seeing, weaves stories around this to keep us engaged, then simply shows watching. The story here is superficially a murder… Continue reading Memories of Murder (2003)