As a visual medium, cinema has its own pathways for an audience to recognize the tragedy of a society forbidding the love between people. A film's script can make the tragedy explicit through the dialogue of approving or disapproving characters, but the visual nature of a film opens multiple opportunities for the couple to communicate … Continue reading #198. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Dir., Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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
In the Mood for Love shows a different side of itself each time it is watched. It will likely show its visual side first, as the bodily movements of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung produce some of the most sensual shots in cinema. When you return to the film again, its beauty is not lost … Continue reading #147. In the Mood for Love. Dir., Wong Kar Wai
My upbringing affects my perspective on Hitchcock's films. He was likely the only film director my parents would name in a conversation about cinema. When they talked about films, they recounted plot more than anything else, and sometimes an actor could be named; but that would be the extent of crediting cast and crew. Michael … Continue reading #137. Notorious. Dir., Alfred Hitchcock
notes on cinema 