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Thursday, June 14, 2012
German Expressionism: Vol. 5
Saturday, June 2, 2012
German Expressionism: Vol.4
Enjoy.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
German Expressionism: Vol. 3
The German Expression movement began before WWI and gained momentum in the 20’s and 30’s. It influenced architecture, painting and cinema. This movement gave surrealistic shape and structure to forms that reflect psychological states. This is evident in the extreme contrast of light and dark, the use of reflective surfaces and abstract optical tricks and even anthropomorphism.
Enjoy.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
German Expressionism: Vol.2
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
German Expressionism: Vol.1
The German Expression movement began before WWI and gained momentum in the 20’s and 30’s. It influenced architecture, painting and cinema. This movement gave surrealistic shape and structure to forms that reflect psychological states. This is evident in the extreme contrast of light and dark, the use of reflective surfaces and abstract optical tricks and even anthropomorphism.
Enjoy.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Neo-Noir of the 90’s: Vol. 4
From the Greek “neo” for new and the French “noir” for black, Neo Noir is a term used in film and literature. It refers to a genre that primarily uses elements of the film noir movement of the 40’s and 50’s with modern spin on style, themes and sometimes content.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Why Staying True to the Source Material Usually Amounts in Betrayal
I’m a cinafile. Anyone that’s kept up with this blog or knows me personally could probably tell you as much but leave it to me to think that it needs more of an explanation. It means more than just being a “movie nerd” or a “film buff”. I’m those things as well but it’s more than that. You see, I don’t read much, I don’t take in plays and I don’t follow television shows or go to art exhibits. I love music but although my collection is somewhat obscure, it’s not what you would call eclectic. I love cinema. It is the artistic expression that speaks to me the most and it is the medium that I would prefer you tell me a story through.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Neo-Noir of the 90’s: Vol. 3
Enjoy.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Neo Noir of the 90's: Vol. 2
Enjoy.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Neo Noir of the 90's: Vol. 1
Vol. 1 – L.A. Confidential (1997) – This film stars Guy Pierce, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe as three detectives investigating a murder in a late night coffee shop in the star struck City of Angels in 1953. Each of these men takes their own path to reject the official story and decide to probe deeper into the mystery.
This is one of those films that I re-watch every couple of years, always wondering how it will hold up through the years. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that I grow out of a lot of films that I appreciated more when I was younger. Most of these films came out in the 90’s; when I was in high school and had no idea why I was in love with cinema. I’m happy to report that I still regard this as a fantastic film and one of the best of its decade. Probably the best thing this movie has going for it is its character’s complexity. Lieutenant Exley, Detective White and Detective Vincennes all have very different motives and are each given a separate arc. It’s hard enough to write a good arc for one character and a lot of films fail miserably at it. The construction and execution of three separate arcs that all lead to the same place, is what sets this film apart.
Most of the noirish elements we see have to do with the period that the story takes place. The costumes, cars, props and even the billboards seen in the cityscape all seem to exist together beautifully. I took special notice of how some of the cars and neighborhood seemed to be much older and rundown than the rest. This type of attention to detail gives the world that is built a more lived in feel.
One of the things however that makes this film a neo noir in my book is Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito’s characters. Basinger plays Lynn Bracken, a high end prostitute that is supposed to look like screen legend Veronica Lake. She’s here essentially to give a ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ spin on an old noir trope: the Femme Fatale. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for that roll. Devito plays Sid Hudgens, a tabloid writer that makes deals with Detective Vincennes to bust Hollywood’s stars. He perfectly represents the seedy underbelly of a noir world. He has no heart of gold and no arc. His motives are purely selfish. This type of archetypical character is a throwback to the backbone of classic noir.
If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly suggest you watch it. Its rich story and characters are reason alone. If you have seen it, I would say it deserves a second look. This is the type of film that gets better with repeat viewings. Its attention to detail gives you something new to discover and its complex plot will most likely reveal something you had missed or forgotten since your last visit.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Certified Copy Review (Spoiler Filled)
I feel as though I recently turned over a new leaf in my life as an appreciator of art. I’m able to find the value in a smaller, quieter and slower film than when I was younger. I no longer dread melodrama. I used to be of the opinion that if something severe or tragic didn’t happen in a story than it wasn’t worth telling. I’m not really sure what happened to me but I seem to have developed the ability to become just as engaged in a small story in recent years.
Certified Copy is Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami’s newest movie starring Oscar winner, Juliette Binoche and opera singer, William Shimell. The film begins with author James Miller (Shimell) giving a seminar on his newest book in Tuscany. A woman in the audience (Binoche) gives him her address and they meet up the next day to spend the day together discussing art and the validity of its originality while she gives him a tour of the country-side.
At one point in the film, an observer in a café assumes that the couple is married and Binoche decides not to correct her. Instead, she carries out a long and detailed conversation with the barista about her husband and her unhappy marriage to him. This is the point that the film sparks. The couple spends the rest of the afternoon in the perceived charade of a long relationship. The discussions and arguments are heated and passionate and the details revealed make the audience wonder if there really is something more to these two.
It’s a great credit to the screenplay (also by Kiarostami) that he never tips his hand. If you listen to the conversations closely, all sorts of clues are given. But the more you think about them, all of these clues are circumstantial evidence; leading the audience in both directions simultaneously.
The weight of this film is not in the mystery or whether or not you can properly solve it. The point of this film is that there is validity in the emotions that are brought out by art and love. The originality of a piece of art or the authenticity of a relationship has little bearing on the audience’s response. Isn’t this the nature of any film using actors to portray a love story anyway? We all know that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are not really former lovers trapped in unoccupied Africa. But that doesn’t change the way your heart sinks when you find out that their lives “don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” Even this film could be considered pretty derivative. It’s sort of the lovechild of Orson Welles’ “F is for Fake” and Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad”.
Are they or aren’t they? Did they or didn’t they? These are a few of the questions you will find yourself asking over the course of this film. The beauty is not in the answers of these questions, but in the revelation that the answers don’t matter. The film was able to elicit an emotional response from you without ever revealing the true nature of the relationship on display.
If a copy of a painting or a sculpture has artistic value, then a copy of a relationship should have an emotional value…. If both of these premises are true, a film about both should be worth its weight in gold. This film explores art and its emotional relationship to its audience and the abstract concept of originality. This film probably makes the best case that true artistic value comes from its audience and not the artist. And the fact that this film says that so with such skill and elegance can only mean that it can’t possibly be true….