When I saw this film for the first time in 2006, I disliked it quite a bit. Today, I treat it as my first major failure in media interpretation and analysis, because I disliked it for all the wrong reasons. Tykwer's film isn't particularly good, although you have to admit that with today's lack of historical costume dramas, it has quite a few nice sights and technical goodies to offer.
There are many layers to the story and much to…
There're some spoilers here, so watch out.
Exploring emotional and thematical landscapes delineated by Greek director can become harrowing experience to anyone ill-prepared for such a task. If any movie needs trigger warnings at the beginning (I don't really like trigger warnings, although they have some utility; but it is not topic of this note) this one - Dogtooth - is clear contender to be the movie, that needs one. It is fascinating movie; it is difficult movie; it is…
The motorization of the counterculture - the future of the world!
Like all legends of the cinema of contestation, today it acts more as evidence of the latent nihilism of hippie movement than anything else.
There is a little bit of counterculture hagiography of this specific American variety, which sounds a bit tone-deaf and naïve today. But above all it's nevertheless an acting masterclass and that cannot be taken away from it.
"Life Goes On"
Question - is it possible to create a backstage musical (with strong proto-noir elements) as a silent film? It turns out that yes, and the effect is very unobvious. Dynamic, very well told and outlined with ‘clean lines’.
The narrative reverses the tropes of Said's Orientalism in an interesting way. For a while, it may seem to the audience that the story is heading in a familiar direction, that it is the male protagonist who, in a…
Next step in my very dispersed Villeneuve's retrospective.
I'm not going to write huge note about the movie; it is a modern classic. Period. Now - after 3rd rewatch - I am even more convinced, that Villeneuve is my favorite genre director currently working in the industry and Arrival is one the best high concept SF movies of all time. Canadian director has uncanny ability to infuse genre stories with rich arthouse-like atmosphere; his movies are slower, thoughtful but never…
Mandatory birthday rewatch
It's funny that I never wrote anything about this movie, although I believe it is a modern classic and one of the best, if not the best movie of 21st century, and I constantly am using it as basepoint in my other notes/micro-essays. Today I'm gonna try to compose a set of some brief – maybe a bit incoherent – impressions, as a kind of a present to myself.
1. Signal breaks
Sometimes I thought about this…
