The birth of Marlene. A bit simplistic and shot in a smooth, decorative late silent style that works against the "archetypical" character design (the man should really have been just called "the man", that's all he is), yet parts of it really are evocative: the toy train moving through winter wonderland, the claustrophobic giddiness of the New Year's Eve party... and, above all of course, Marlene's face, a canvas of its own, devoid of externalized affect, a surface that seems to exist because of and for our gaze only.
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One More River 1934
Very adult and responsible working through of some of the pitfalls of bourgeoise morality. Whale thankfully introduces a fair dose of excentricity here and there, yet unlike with THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR or BY CANDLELIGHT, the story never quite ceases to be presented as a case study. Most frustratingly so in the way the film treats the central plot point: Clare, the world-wise cynic, spending a romantic/platonic night in the woods with her boyish beau - a beautiful scene,…
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Afire 2023
I keep thinking about Leon's tattoo. The way the framing and his partially unbottened shirt again and again lay bare its edges, without ever allowing us to take in its entirety. In a way the mostly hidden tattoo it is a perfect cinematic object: on the one hand it is a device of audience control, because it keeps up our interest in the protagonist and especially in his body, which is never exposed (unlike Devid's and Felix's) and which also…
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