Bad Influence This film marked a disastrous turn in American society. No, I’m not talking about the overtly racist content. Any nitwit can see that and adjust, though I suspect that my grandchildren will decry with equal vehemence the content of the films I now casually accept. The disaster that “Birth” brought was far more… Continue reading The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Tag: p2003
Comments first posted in 2003
The Big Sleep (1946)
Camera in the Head I’m an enthusiast of film, the kind of film that uses the uniquely cinematic qualities of the medium. From time to time, I see a non-cinematic film which I like. This is one such. By non-cinematic, I mean that the film is not more than play. Film adds only a few… Continue reading The Big Sleep (1946)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Mongrel Sherlock was an invention of the times, following the new idea of evolution. The notion of pure reason being able to perceive and comprehend everything in life was especially novel. This was contrasted to the bumbling inductive logic of doctors like Watson. Handling Holmes is easy if you stick to the magic of Holmes… Continue reading The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Big Picture (1989)
Guest Travels in Search of an Ironic Formula As the child of intelligent film critics, Guest was poised to start a career in midstream, already aware of the dominance of irony in film. He would go on to develop and shamelessly exploit a specific, detailed formula for films about and using irony: the “mock” umentary… Continue reading The Big Picture (1989)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Stolen This is a film about a child, one who is both IN the film and watches it. Hard as it is to imagine today, the world of film was had ideas on the surface, and lively controversies. Men took risks and sometimes survived. Here is an experiment in urban photography, naturalistic acting (rather, naturalism)… Continue reading Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Beyond the Sea (2004)
Keyser’s Desire Like it or not, watching film is an accretive process: each film provides a context and more for the next. One of those threads of continuity is the unfortunate fact that we see the same faces in many presumably different roles, as if there weren’t as many talented actors as there are roles.… Continue reading Beyond the Sea (2004)
Begotten (1989)
Anal Ears This film is about its voyage into our minds, and it gets more competent as the steps get closer to us. The least artful element is the actual acting and shooting. The selection and processing of images is very nice. In fact, I used this (extremely slowed down) as the background of my… Continue reading Begotten (1989)
Better Than Sex (2000)
Freckles, Neck This slight project has nothing to recommend it, except wonder at its reason for being. But that is enough for me. See, the reason behind such a project is that the sexual charm of a woman — a certain woman — is an accelerating capture. Once some level of familiarity is breached, rapture… Continue reading Better Than Sex (2000)
Miss Marple: At Bertram’s Hotel (1987)
The Space as a Character This is the sixth or seventh in the series that I have seen. BBC has a policy of putting different creative crew in charge of each one, so they vary significantly. I found the “Alien” and “Batman” franchises to be a mini-lesson in film techniques, and this is a lot… Continue reading Miss Marple: At Bertram’s Hotel (1987)
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Visions of the Other Side Unless you are just filling space until you die, you’re going to want something out of experiences like this. The idea is supposed to be that someone can guide us to alternative worlds and report back with something useful or at least interesting. It is not enough to merely watch… Continue reading The Basketball Diaries (1995)