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Blow Up (1966)
Sometimes, reality is the strangest fantasy of all.

A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.

Double Folding consider this a fine example of a doubly folded film. The first fold is the much commented fold between the filmmaker and his chief character. Some rather obvious matters of reality and the projected image are explored. You can read about them in...


Published November 23, 2024
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
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Broken Embraces (2009)
Passion, obsession, wealth, jealousy, family, guilt, and creativity.
Filmmaker(s): Pedro Almodóvar

Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.

Blind Onion usual, Pedro builds layer upon layer of introspective insight. As before we have love, image, image as love through the eyes of a filmmaker, love as obsession, obsessions of the filmmaker's eye, and that imposed on the love discovered/portrayed. This time the layering is...


Published November 30, 2024
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
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The Limits of Control (2009)
For every way in, there is another way out.
Filmmaker(s): Jim Jarmusch

A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.

Solarian will have spoilers. They are not of the conventional sort. But I urge you to watch this before reading. I do urge you to watch this. "Ghost Dog," was an effective experience for me. Others might call it zen-like, or evoking a mood like that....


Published November 30, 2024
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
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Inland Empire (2006)
A woman in trouble.
Filmmaker(s): David Lynch

An actress’s perception of reality becomes increasingly distorted as she finds herself falling for her co-star in a remake of an unfinished Polish production that was supposedly cursed.

Kieslowski Films Joyce saw this during a period of extreme emotional stress, probably the best possible mode. It was also surrounded by my listening to "Big Fish," Lynch's book, read by himself. The contrast is astonishing: Lynch's banal aphorisms in the book with rich, multilayered...


Published December 2, 2024
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Hidden (2005)
Filmmaker(s): Michael Haneke

George, host of a television show focusing on literature, receives videos shot on the sly that feature his family, along with disturbing drawings that are difficult to interpret. He has no idea who has made and sent him the videos. Progressively, the contents of the videos become more personal, indicating that the sender has known George for a long time.

Our Camera the very first, we know that a hidden story within this film will merge with the film. After 4 minutes of looking at the movie, we realise we are looking at a movie within the movie, a tape. As the film proceeds, it...


Published December 2, 2024
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
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Heaven (2002)
When you take justice into your own hands, what are the consequences?
Filmmaker(s): Tom Tykwer

Cate Blanchett stars as Philippa, a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, who has seen many friends, including her husband, fall victim to drug overdoses. Philippa has repeatedly contacted the police with information about Turin's biggest drug dealer but, complicit in his dealings, they have completely ignored her. So Philippa decides to dole out her own form of justice with a homemade bomb -- setting her off on a journey from young widow to fugitive on the run.

UnderItalian movies are about other movies, never life. Kieslowski made a career out of making films that take a national filmmaking style and twisting them to new purposes, letting us know he is doing so in the process. ‘Three Colors' was as much about French filmmaking...


Published December 2, 2024
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Blade Runner (1982)
Man has made his match...now it's his problem.
Filmmaker(s): Ridley Scott

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

Offworld Truth the mid-seventies, I exchanged a few letters with Phil Dick, who had then dropped his obsession with parallel, valid visions and had developed a similar obsession with created realities. This concern maps well to the wave of film theory that was sweeping the...


Published December 9, 2024
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The Limey (1999)
Tell them I'm coming
Filmmaker(s): Steven Soderbergh

The Limey follows Wilson, a tough English ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death. Upon arrival, Wilson goes to task battling Valentine and an army of L.A.'s toughest criminals, hoping to find clues and piece together what happened. After surviving a near-death beating, getting thrown from a building and being chased down a dangerous mountain road, the Englishman decides to dole out some bodily harm of his own.

Proustian Out and Back deserves respect, as much for his failures (‘Brokovich,’’Traffic') as his successes (this, ‘Sight,’’Videotape'). When he experiments, it is with simultaneous layers of different kinds involving the eye, the mind, time, remembrance. Here he works on small, intimate layers, small visions of the...


Published December 9, 2024
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
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The Tenant (1976)
Apartment for rent: Quiet building. Furnished. 2 rooms. Previous tenant committed suicide.
Filmmaker(s): Roman Polanski

A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

Front Window a pretty old dude, old enough to remember the taste of Oreos and Coke as they were 50-55 years ago, when every taste for a kid was fresh. I wish I have somehow set some aside then is some magical suspended locker, so...


Published December 9, 2024
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Madman? Monster? Murderer? Scientist?
Filmmaker(s): Fritz Lang

After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.

Viewer Possession comment is on the fully restored Criterion edition.) I see that my comments on the Mabuse films have been deleted. There was an IMDb era when any offended reader could exact revenge by successfully complaining of scores of comments. But I guess that's apt...


Published December 9, 2024
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