Video of the day

Written by Daniel Kasman

Published on

In honor of the week-long run of In the City of Sylvia, here's a clip from one of the best scenes in the film, courtesy of online film critic extraordinaire, President and Founder of Benten Films, and Notebook contributor Andrew "Filmbrain" Grant.  (Original post can be found here.)  Aside from general sexiness and melancholy, it is a remarkable study on how an expressive use of duration and discontinuous editing can transform cinematic clichés like desire, voyeurism, fantasy, and representation.

Responses

5 responses to this post.  Join the discussion

  • Match Cuts

    Hey Daniel,
    Incredible clip! I love how it builds so much tension, emotion, and disappointment through the juxtaposition of facial expressions and musical cues. Strangely, this reminded me of certain scenes in Miami Vice, where dialogue is replaced with an almost instinctual form of communication.

  • Daniel Kasman

    Hi Glenn! Yes indeed, I hadn’t thought about it but this has a kind of lilting impressionism that Mann has increasingly got near with his recent films. Not to mention that Miami Vice seems made up of snatches—inadvertently, as if Mann has to assemble something working from something broken during production—but Guerín is purposelessly working with snatches…

  • Ellie Lee

    Thanks for the clip, Daniel.
    A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Édouard Manet, 1882
    http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/r/U/07_faqs.jpg

  • Daniel Kasman

    I forgot about that reference Ellie, thanks so much!

  • Marie-Pierre Duhamel

    Come on, guys, mention that the film was in competition at the Venice Mostra 2007, a daring choice, no?

Your opinion

Please login to add a new comment.