He’s become a punchline here in the US, but that doesn’t make Jerry Lewis any less of a cinematic genius. Case in point: his 1961 masterpiece The Ladies Man: Whether you’re a fan of Lewis’s eccentric comedy or not, this film is worth watching for its legendary “dollhouse” set alone, supposedly the largest built by [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Wes Anderson’
Arthur Penn’s Night Moves
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Annie Hall, Arthur Penn, Éric Rohmer, Billy Wilder, Bonnie and Clyde, Days of Heaven, Don't Look Now, Ernst Lubitsch, Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman, John Boorman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Melanie Griffith, My Night at Maud's, Nicolas Roeg, Night Moves, Point Blank, Robert Altman, Roger Ebert, Ross Macdonald, The Conversation, The Long Goodbye, The New Hollywood, Wes Anderson, William Wyler on September 30, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Well, Arthur Penn died. He was of course a great director. And of course everyone will be talking about how great Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is—and it is great. It’s one of the most important of American films; along with John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967), it essentially kick-started 1970s cinema, and that decade’s auteur-driven New [...]
Looking at Movements, part 1: The Post-Punk Revival
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Wes Anderson, The Decemberists, Danielson, Minimalism, Alexander Rodchenko, Constructivism, Interpol, Dziga Vertov, Floria Sigismondi, Kraftwerk, The Killers, The Chameleons, The Ramones, The Strokes, Tom Petty, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Roman Coppola, Uwe Flade, Glenn Branca, El Lissitzky, Lilya Brik, Orange Juice, The Fire Engines, Josef K, New Wave, New Order, Post-Punk Revival, Ian Curtis, Mark Burgess, Paul Banks, Carlos Dengler, Joy Division, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Suede, Television, Gang of Four, Jonas Odell, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Britpop on September 22, 2010 | 8 Comments »
This is the start of an ongoing series, in which I’ll examine two long-running interests of mine: 1) the concept of the art movement (and related issues like “scenes” and “the zeitgeist”), and 2) how the culture-at-large is not all that homogeneous, but rather braided together from numerous different subcultures, each following their own individual [...]
Brevity, part 7: Slow Motion
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Andrew & Lana Wachowski, Andy Warhol, Arthur Penn, Blake Edwards, Brian De Palma, Bullet-Time, David Lynch, Douglas Gordon, Dziga Vertov, Eadweard Muybridge, Erik Satie, Godfrey Reggio, Interpol, Jean Cocteau, Jean Luc Godard, Jean Vigo, John Woo, Joseph Cornell, Kar Wai Wong, Kenneth Anger, Martin Scorsese, Maya Deren, overcranking, Pixies, René Clair, Rouben Mamoulian, Sam Peckinpah, slow motion, Stanley Kubrick, Tim Macmillan, Time-Slice, undercranking, Velouria, Wes Anderson, Zack Snyder, zoopraxiscope on March 9, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Note: This post is partly a reply to a question someone asked me, back-channel, about slow motion, but also partly due to my general interest in how time works in narrative, and in brevity and stasis (and “the ongoing”). Slow motion is created by presenting film footage at a slower rate than it was shot [...]
Notes on Twee, part 1: Music Videos as School Plays
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Aaron Stewart, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Bjork, Chris Robinson, Christian Palladino, Crash Test Dummies, Danielson, Darren Doane, Dave Meyers, Dwayne Carter, Fefe Dobson, HORSE The Band, Lil Wayne, Mastodon, Michel Gondry, Mike Maguire, MTV Movie Awards, Of Montreal, Panzervision, Patrick Daughters, Paul McGuigan, Roboshobo, Snow Patrol, The Avalanches, The Brothers Chaps, The Decemberists, The Max Fischer Players, The Shins, Tom Kuntz, Wes Anderson on January 15, 2010 | 11 Comments »
1993: Crash Test Dummies: “MMM MMM MMM MMM”, director unknown.
My Favorite New Movies of 2009
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Agnès Varda, Andrzej Wajda, Antichrist, Bill Murray, Bradley Beesley, Bright Star, Bruno Delbonnel, Chaos Reigns, Chris Marker, Christian Petzold, Christmas on Mars, Christoph Waltz, David Mamet, David Yates, Fanny Brawne, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Frank Miller, George Salisbury, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Hayao Miyazaki, Il Divo, Inglourious Basterds, J.J. Abrams, Jane Campion, Jerichow, John Keats, Katyń, Lars von Trier, Les Plages d’Agnès, Mike Stoklasa, Nicolas Roeg, Nightwatching, Oren Peli, Paolo Sorrentino, Paranormal Activity, Peter Greenaway, Ponyo, Puffball, Quentin Tarantino, Redbelt, Rembrandt, Richard Kelly, Ricky Jay, Rita Tushingham, sexism, Star Trek, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review, The Beaches of Agnes, The Box, The Spirit, torture porn, Tsai Ming-Liang, Visage (Face), Watchmen, Wayne Coyne, Wes Anderson, Whatever Works, Woody Allen, Zack Snyder on December 31, 2009 | 21 Comments »
[Update: 2010 is here] [and 2011 is here] Here are my favorite new movies of 2009, like you care. I’m drawing from the films I saw in the theater this year, some of which were “officially” released a year or two ago. But they’re all new. …So, Mr. Cranky, what did you like?