Category: British Film
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Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
Again, von Trier seems intent on punishing a women, although this is no secret to him or anyone else. But much more than Dogville or Melancholia, Dancer in the Dark seems so intent on presenting an innocent, kind, and even childlike protagonist just to destroy her as awfully and violently as possible. The film begins with abstract paintings to…
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Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)
The diegesis is overtly artificial, with no pretense at realism but does something like “cinemize” the stage. Performance and mise-en-scene are highlighted; lighting, for example, changes when the narration announces that a “change of light” came over the town. This happens two times. Sounds like doors closing are audible, although no doors exist. A fast-forward…
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Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
This one is textbook, one that teaches itself. We get the opening image of an extreme-closeup of an eye, a nod to Vertov, then followed up very shortly by a POV from, yes, a man with a movie camera complete with the target aimed at his gazed-upon prey. (A good critical exercise would be examining…
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Catch-Up, cont’d: 11/2012-12/2012
Skyfall (dir. Sam Mendes, 2012) – Really want/need to see it again, but here’s the first of the Craig-era Bond films that tries to get away from the Bourne legacy (as it were). Major shift in narrative gears here, with Bond’s role as protector of the maternal figure he had previously been defying. He’s no…
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Viewing Log, Week of 9/16/2012
Black Narcissus (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947) – Mere days before starting a seminar in film and melodrama, I’ll make the tentative claim that this film constitutes an example of the melodramatic mode. What makes it particularly exemplary is its narrative content as a counterpoint to melodrama. By revolving around nuns working and…
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Viewing Log, Week of 9/9/2012
Albatross (dir. Niall MacCormick, 2011) – An “independent,” acting-driven story about how “coming of age” is accompanied by lots of challenges, although these challenges seem quite avoidable and fairly atypical. This is all story, and it doesn’t know where its sympathies lie. Boogie Woogie (dir. Duncan Ward, 2009) – Anything that mocks the upper-class art…
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Blow-Up: Sickness of (Z)eros
Obviously this deserves a lot more attention than what’s about to follow. It’s one of the quintessential art house films, it’s what made Antonioni even cooler with the English-speaking world, and it’s one of the most engrossing bits of cinematic existentialism ever composed. Like in L’Avventura, the mystery within the film is never solved; only…
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Quickies, Vol. XXVII: Bromances, sort of
Pirate Radio (dir. Richard Curtis, 2009) – As movies go, bad. But, it’s another example of the mythologizing of the 60s, as seen in other rock ‘n roll period films like Almost Famous and Taking Woodstock. Like those, this one centers on a male youth who’s a fish-out-of-water, an audience stand-in that helps us relate…
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The Dreamers: 3-Way Cinephilia
Previous advisor had this one on the syllabus of an undergrad film theory course, and for good reason (although many of us would never put it on any syllabus). It doesn’t take a critic or a scholar to see that Bertolucci’s obsessions with politics, sex, and cinema all collide here. This film is worthy of…
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Quickies, Vol. XXVI
The Red Shoes (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948) – This was awhile ago, but it begs mentioning. A beautiful, nearly sublime film that only early Technicolor could produce. Films about art that still maintain a concern for the inner political machinations and ramifications of art demand attention. They don’t pretend to transcend, and…
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Quickies, Vol. XXIV
The War Wagon (dir. Burt Kennedy, 1967) – This is really all formula, all textbook Western – for its era, anyway. John Wayne is a slightly less upstanding character this time around (but there were hints of that even in The Searchers, weren’t there? Wayne and Kirk Douglas certainly make a fine pair, although one…
Precious Bodily Fluids 