Two Mario O'Hara films on VCD, DVD releases and other miscellaneous items: http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2008/04/vcds-of-two-major-mario-ohara-films.html...
My Blueberry Nights (Wong kar-wai, 2007) is a much more enjoyable film than most current reviews indicate. Its chief virtue: the gorgeous imagery, with color...
... I was a bit less warm towards this. Wong Kar-Wai's trademark is there, no doubt, and as always it is great. On the other hand, it seems like he is really...
Have been reading Noel Vera's comments on J'accuse (Abel Gance). He thinks it's a classic. Oddly enough, he and I both liked exactly the same things about the...
... "...The Chicago Reader capsule review has Jonathan Rosenbaum praising J'accuse, and comparing its 'inventiveness' to Sam Fuller. However, he does not...
Still haven't seen "La Roue" (Gance); will keep my eyes open for it. I did enjoy Gance's early "La Folie du Docteur Tube" (1915). Have been trying to see as...
Thanks for the comments, Mike. La Roue, incidentally, is supposed to be out on DVD this month. And J'Accuse to follow this September, if I remember right. I...
... I'm not really a fan of Gance, largely I think as a response to the sheer monumentalism of his "big" works. Have never seen La Roue, so can't comment on...
I re-watched this film on cable over the weekend. I have a decent DVD letterboxed burn off of an IFC broadcast from a few months back, and the film runs fairly...
I saw the same screening of Boom! It is indeed a fascinating work. It has a rich visual style. Losey follows one complex composition with another, and another....
Great post, Peter! I adore BOOM! and got to see a lovely print of it a few years ago. It's easily my favorite film/TV adaptation of my beloved Tennessee ...
I recently caught up with it, and I can't say that I liked it very much -- certainly it pales in comparison's to Lean's "Great Expectation," or for that...
Here are my entries on the Jeonju film festival in case anyone's interested. There are posts on Alexander Kluge, Val Lewton, Hong Sangsoo, and Bela Tarr. ...
In "Hitchcock's Romantic Irony", Richard Allen eloquently writes: "Vertigo is the supreme illustration of Hitchcock's aestheticism... Is Vertigo a film about a...
The following paragraphs contain SPOILERS in regards to not only Redbelt, but also previous Mamet features (i.e., Heist and Spartan). Discretion is advised. ...
... premiered ... The New York Times observed this anniversary yesterday with a Terrence Rafferty piece (is this keyed to some sort of reissue?) which states ...
... "With the release of Redbelt, Mamet's core theme of identity has finally come full circle..." From your thematic analysis it would appear that REDBELT was...
On page 228 of John Russell Taylor's *Strangers in Paradise* (London: Faber and Faber, 1983), he wrote that Jean Renoir, unhappy with a preview screening of...
It's likely TR means 'brilliant' to reflect the character of the colors rather than as a value judgement on the restoration, though one might also consider it...
... Terrence ... out ... irony ... It seems that the Robert Harris restoration circus has now erected its tent over THE GODFATHER (admittedly a much less...
Why do we do so much of the former and so little of the latter? is it cuz we still have loads of frankfurt school meets t.s. eliot great tradition of bullshit...
... I'm sorry but I don't get this. 1) Are "Film Criticism and Interpretation" and "Film Appreciation" wholly different things? In my own practice of them I...
I must say that the irony for me personally is that the "brilliant restoration" means that I probably won't see VERTIGO for its 50 year celebration. I deeply...
I agree with Blake here, if criticism and interpretation are done well they are also appreciation. But it is true that works that are only about appreciation...
... year ... to ... often ... restoration" ... original ... and ... it, ... I haven't actually seen it, but I understand that the VERTIGO disc contained in the...
... lot ... several ... Thanks, Brad. I didn't know about that option of the "mono soundtrack." Sounds watchable enough. I guess the older commercial VHS is...
Personally, I think that Mamet's cinematic works are about as fascist as the those of Peckinpah. Which is to say, not really. Granted, this is strictly my...
... I think we've allowed ourselves to become far too esoteric thanks to the former. T. S. Eliot was 1) a depressed pompous sophist and 2) precisely...
