Griffith’s Great American Pastoral: Location and Meaning in Way Down East
“The air is saturated with their feelings for each other as they listen to ‘the distant music of the falls,’ the same falls, of course, that will threaten to kill her.”
Liverpool Lullaby: On Terence Davies’ Of Time and the City
“Through cinema the past is regained.”
Activist & Political · Documentaries
What Is Cheaper Than Nothing at All? Czech Dream, Culture Jamming, and Consumerism
“I jam because I am without ID.”
Out of His Head: Metaphysical Escape Attempts in the Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman
“Kaufman’s homunculi schema is an implicit mockery of our bottomless ignorance of the nature of consciousness.”
Actors & Personalities · Comedy · Directors
Looking at Charlie: City Lights: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
“If you could only see me as I really am, not as I appear but as I really am, as I am in my heart.”
John Cassavetes: The First Dogme Director?
“The major point of convergence between Cassavetes and the Dogme movement is an oppositional realist form that blurs the boundaries between being and performing.”
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: The General, Douglas Fairbanks Silents, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Fighters, Real Money, Lady with the Dog
The General (Buster Keaton, 1926) Transferred from a print struck from the original camera negative, Kino’s recent two-disc presentation of The General looks shockingly new, as if Keaton had shot[…]
“Oh Mary, Don’t Ask”: The Boys in the Band on DVD
“In the ensuing post-Stonewall civil rights struggles, The Boys in the Band became crazy Aunt Betty locked in the attic when guests came over.”
Books: Masculine Singular: French New Wave Cinema
Masculine Singular: French New Wave Cinema, by Geneviève Sellier. Translated by Kristin Ross. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. Paperback, $22.95, 280pp. ISBN: 0822341921. When it comes to feminist film[…]
Books: The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory
The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory, by Patricia Pisters. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003. Cloth $60.00, Paper $26.95, 307pp. ISBN: 0-8047-4028-3. In contemporary film[…]
Reflections Through a Golden Nigh: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
“Like Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, or the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony, Fincher is an auteur-facile, an auteur of illusory depth.”
Of Bullies and Blood Drinkers: Talking to Tomas Alfredson about Let the Right One In
“I think the most horrifying images are the ones you make yourself. Is there someone standing behind the door, or is it just two shoes standing there?”
Deep and Wide: The 2008 American Film Institute Festival
A sampling of the best of the fest’s international offerings
What’s the lowdown on Slumdog?
That’s precisely what a number of folks are attempting to ascertain in light of the accolades this British/US film (shot in the underbelly of India) is receiving. It very well[…]
The Cooler Younger Sister Thing – Part One: Diana Lyn in MIRACLE AT MORGAN’S CREEK
What is it that makes the hotter, smarter younger sister so much more sophisticated, precocious, intelligent and adorable than the older lead in movies? Maybe it’s because she’s free of[…]
What do Terrence Malick and Steely Dan have in common? Part 1
Let’s start with the most obvious correlation, other than perhaps the fact that both artists are likely to appeal to folks like me who strongly identify with the technical experimentation[…]
The Tao of Poverty Row
In the rush to “clean up” the images of classic cinema, to remove every speck and splice digitally, etc., are we not also losing something? What about the blurry,[…]
The AGE OF CONSENT and STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (Aka A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH) on region 1 dvd
Remember a couple years ago when C. Jerry Kutner was singing the praises of Powell’s AGE of CONSENT right here in Bright Lights After Dark? Both the films on this[…]
The Actress Meme: Co-Stars
With a tip of the hat and, perhaps, apologies to Nathaniel R, here is my version of his 20 Actress meme – not just 20 favorite actresses, but 20 outstanding[…]
A Double Dysfunctional Mickey Xmas
I’ve survived the family Xmas, and what saved us was the power of the movies. This got me to thinking about all the best dysfunctional family holiday films–I don’t mean[…]
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