I cannot comment on the connection that The Wages of Fear has to Le Salaire de la peur, the source novel that I have not read. But I readily draw connections between The Wages of Fear and the novels of B. Traven, of which I am very fond. Clouzot's film and Traven's novels are both … Continue reading #36. The Wages of Fear. Dir., Henri-Georges Clouzot
The movie offers two forms of magic, since its conquest of the visible world extends in two opposite directions. The first, on which the realist theory concentrates, gives it the power to 'possess' the real world by capturing its appearance. The second, focus of the traditional aesthetic, permits the presentation of an ideal image, ordered … Continue reading #73. Cléo from 5 to 7, and #74. Vagabond. Dir., Agnes Varda
Bresson's style is not everyone's cup of tea, but a film like Au Hasard Balthazar is a quick path to understanding the depth of cinema's potential as an art form. Typically a film, even a really good one, is an industrial composite, a product from a system that is not always about putting the best … Continue reading #297. Au Hasard Balthazar. Dir., Robert Bresson
The River has the power to reveal the extent to which other Western films about Southeast Asia will rely on Orientalist tropes about poverty, spirituality, and naturalism. Whether out of a fear of reproducing visual stereotypes or from a keen awareness that he has a lot to learn about India, Jean Renoir decided to adopt … Continue reading #276. The River. Dir., Jean Renoir
A Klee painting named "Angelus Novus" shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive … Continue reading #196. Hiroshima mon amour. Dir., Alain Resnais
Barbet Schroeder's documentary is filled with scene after scene of Idi Amin rambling. During one of them he claims that he once ran one hundred meters in 9.8 seconds. If true, Amin would have set the men's sprinting record decades before this time was officially recorded by Maurice Greene in 1999. Compared to Idi Amin's … Continue reading #157. General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait. Dir., Barbet Schroeder
notes on cinema 