In spite of the film's controversy and horrific depiction of America capitalist society, Dogville poses the question of every citizen's morality and the truth and denial of the American life. It is one of the best examples to use minimalism and treating the film to be like a stage-play.
Like a piece of poetry coming to life or a stage opera, Cocteau's most famous film, Beauty and the Beast (1946) stands tall as being one of the iconic, if not beautiful, fantasies in cinema. One critic at the time, called it a reflection of WWII home conditions in France, but he does more than something politically obtuse, he soaks his audience into a film that is a painting and interacting with the young at heart.
After seeing The Turin Horse a third time, it made me realize that a portion of the film reflects how repetitious my daily activities are, eating the same food and reliving the same mundane experience. A weight of human life as Tarr would describe it. Even the use of black-and-white reflects the world truly. In some way it's a documentary or in another way a dark impressionist painting with Nietzsche as the painter.
Marker pays homage to one of the greatest filmmakers in Russia, Andrei Tarkovsky. In this free-form documentary, we intuitively explore Tarkovsky's techniques in film, philosophical views on life, and the subtext within all his films. It shows one of the best examples of using film criticism and providing an analysis of a master. Marker goes into the mind of an enigma, defining Tarkovsky's stylistic idiosyncrasies.
A film that is life changing (whether you are religious or not). Each episode gave an impression of how real people, real adults behave in real life and what moral challenges lie ahead. The Ten Commandments do not pose as restrictions (or rules) but rather giving a reflection of people conflicted with these problems. A true piece of art by a master of Polish cinema, showing how we are only human.
An underrated picture about show business talent and the ingredients of vaudeville, Woody Allen's contemporary humor and Bosrcht Belt comedy. But what Allen expresses is a nostalgic portrait of the traditional style of old comedy. Allen plays a has-been that strives for washed-up talent, giving them a second chance. The look of the film is shot brilliantly in black-and-white giving the picture an old vintage feel.
Tarkovsky's personal yearning of wanting to return to his home country after being ostracized. A dream-like, metaphysical diary of his world.
Fillmmakers and film people big and small will miss you Cat, a dedication and an inspiration...R.I.P.
Still waiting for Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.
"....and the 'Invisible Man' has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever till the end of time... But he *loves you*." -George Carlin
I am still waiting for Strings.
Faces of truth, faces of guilt, faces of weak, faces of thinking, the faces of being human. It captures the essence of "being just being" with subtlety and astounding compositions. A metaphor for the working class and am analytical study of what people are thinking and what challenges they have to face. We cannot truly identify it, but in our subjective thoughts anything can happen, so we give our own impression.
Rango was a peculiar experience. It is odd animation at its wit, juxtaposing the European style of Spaghetti Westerns with surreal based humor and dialogue, which I think in fairness, it is a film that needs to be viewed more than once. It centers a trapped/domesticated chameleon (Johnny Depp) as he wishes for a difference instead of a life around a glass cage. What follows is the misadventures and mythology of the desert life. The animation was done by ILM (Industrial, Light, and Magic), it is a truly a unique, scrutinizing detailed setting and has a blend of Sergio Leone matched a homage to the late Chuck Jones' work. It brings new appeal to neo-western stamina.
"It stinks!!!" No, literally the film really reeks.
Scott was able to borrow a pure element of Hitchcock, meaning that you do not see everything. This technique was especially useful for such a claustrophobic environment. The Alien is the ideal monster that represents sexual context but also as a bio-mechanical nightmare. The characters are quintessential because they are "real-life" in a future world. A revolution to blend the two genres of sci-fi and horror.
Angelopoulos has just passed away...like Tarkovsky or practically every director he, invented a blend of spirituality, metaphysics, and vision to film...worlds that seemed like emerged from a crystal sphere (hence the cinematographic skill he had in mind). He invented artists that hoped to search for a new destiny in a cold world. Angelopoulos has now influence my passion for pushing the limits for filmmaking on my part even further.
Again, I would add her short piece, String. Absolutely gorgeous paint-on-glass animation...strings as motifs that tie together two unlikely people of the same building.
A satirical element is that human affairs constantly consume or "eat" at nature, including man himself when he is nothing but bones.
The film itself is based highly on American Jazz and film-noir classics, the animation is able elaborate this. Still, the position of each character during a climatic sequence is set up exactly like a spaghetti western. The physicality of an anime character has very large eyes, so this increases the elongated stare that builds up the tension. It doesn't exaggerate with the simplicity of Japanese anime, it's original.
Brooklyn Bridge, The Statue of Liberty, The Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mark Twain, and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. All of these have become documentary film classics...it is important for a new generation of leading filmmakers to discover moments that both brings not only the history, but the story in Burn's imagery.
excellent analysis... It is the narrative that Burns creates that makes his films engaging. We suddenly open up to the cross cutting of first person accounts (through quotations) and the accompanying discussion of various experts on the moments within that narrative. Some of his films may be overlong, but that is simply because of the scope of these stories he wants to tell.
No moral plot, what we experience are various abstract images that comes from a man who realizes that he is moments away from death. Nostalgia and memories come to mind. The mother looks deep into her "mirror" and suffers a dark presence. The metaphor of the title is the subconscious of a human's soul, but mostly the sensibility of be guided into a dream. An autobiographical work of genius as we see his childhood.
I would suggest adding her film, Strings. An absolutely beautiful piece of paint-on-glass animation.
I am still waiting for Burn's acclaimed films to be on the website.
An outrage of giving this short animated film two and a half stars...it offers more potential and poetry in impression. A child's depiction of something dark or wicked.
Jazz and Brooklyn Bridge for young filmmakers to discover or rediscover.
The most iconic horror film made during the silent era; one of the first vampire films, based loosely on B. Stoker's Dracula. Murnau was a pioneer for the German cinema; this is his considered his most famous film. Max Schreck as Count Orlok was significant for sinking deep within his character, as if he were a real vampire, giving a supernatural sense. Murnau was experimenting with light to create a dark mood.
What is the fulfillment of creative freedom when it seems so distant away? Tarkovsky ultimately captures the life of Rublev through the mise-en-scene of the Russian landscape in turmoil. This is not the standard classic epic conventional film, he emphasis medieval Russia in the most realistic way possible fused by his artistic value of painting a scene. Rublev is captivating as a humanist trying to find his purpose.
Actual truth or pure fiction these terms defy Kurosawa's masterpiece, Rashomon. Rashomon (Def.: large gate) involves the unique perspectives of eye witnesses account of rape and murder, each story different from the next. The lighting is absolutely brilliant, taking place in this depiction of a dark medieval Japan. The sun piercing down wicked trees of a horrific event. No doubt, this is a question of what is truth?
Fellini's 8½ is no question the film of how a director looks and thinks, while personifying his or her core of fantasy into the real world. It is practically what every artist thinks of their world. Including when a filmmaker suffers immensely from writer's block and it simply takes your imagination to solve all your problems. Fellini is down to Mars, he converts the culture of Italy blending with his fantasies.
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, with the depiction/personification of Death scourging the lands of Medieval Sweden, during the Black Plague. A knight returning from the Crusades, tries to find an answer toward the morals of humanity and his own existence. Featuring one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history, a game of chess between the knight and Death. Philosophy of God's existence in this essential.
