film – Page 2 – arts & fetters

Allen: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1980)

I’m drinking my father’s beer, just pizzazzed up (shouldn’t the plural of pizza be pizzazz?) my mother’s stirfry with WHOLE WHEAT PASTA, lime juice, teriyaki sauce, tobasco, and sugar (it was DREADFUL…i’m so sorry), and this film made me laugh about things I wouldn’t have found humor in a decade ago. “Can sex and loveContinue reading “Allen: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1980)”

Bergman: The Virgin Spring (1960)

So it has been long since I’ve written anything. I’ve been crawling through the same books as I have for ages, and sometimes it’s one, sometimes another, they come and go into my hands as they please, disappear again, but never long enough to be completed. Well, I misplace the blame as well. But IContinue reading “Bergman: The Virgin Spring (1960)”

film: The Matrix trilogy

I’m not watching these three films entirely for pleasure. They’re actually part of a homework assignment. I was turned off by the first one way back when it was new because I thought it was so gross that I had to keep my eyes half closed to watch it. This time I knew when toContinue reading “film: The Matrix trilogy”

Clair: À nous la liberté (1931)

It’s very difficult for me to say anything about this film because I so deeply long to forget it, to pretend that Clair never produced any work except Sous les toits de Paris — and it’s for all the wrong reasons, perhaps. In toits de Paris Clair uses sound so brilliantly that it led meContinue reading “Clair: À nous la liberté (1931)”

Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

I haven’t any idea why both Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart hold such happy places in my heart–but they do. This is the sort of Hitchcock I enjoy most, when I’m not left feeling sick and paranoid. Well, right now I’m feeling sick because I’ve been drinking coffee all night and that’s a miserable thingContinue reading “Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)”

film: Fellini: 8 1/2 (1963)

Obviously, I’ve been putting writing about this film on hold for nearly two weeks, and I’m still not particularly eager to think about it, but it must be done, and so that’s that. I suppose a good starting point is Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. The turning point for me, when I stopped judging booksContinue reading “film: Fellini: 8 1/2 (1963)”

Lamorisse: The Red Balloon / White Mane (Le Ballon Rouge / Crin-Blanc)

I didn’t plan on discussing them both in one note except that both shook me in the same way during particular scenes. I’ve only felt this way once before: during March of the Penguins, a film that attempts to personify penguins, which I think is something we generally enjoy because it brings us closer toContinue reading “Lamorisse: The Red Balloon / White Mane (Le Ballon Rouge / Crin-Blanc)”

film: Godard: Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Dear Meg, I really am trying to write. Actually, the truth is that I haven’t begun writing at all. I have all the materials I need to begin writing, but there’s this present lack of something in me that leads me to a persistent inability not only to finding my words, but also to havingContinue reading “film: Godard: Pierrot le Fou (1965)”

film: Resnais: Night and Fog (1955)

When it comes to this subject I’m not sure anyone can really say much of anything now. I find myself smeared with the same confusion that I face on a thousand other subjects, when some fact very obvious to me is left to wander away from truth and is entirely out of my control, that’sContinue reading “film: Resnais: Night and Fog (1955)”

spartacus

The moment I recognized this would be a tragedy was during Spartacus’ great final speech to his army, when he tells them that they are better than the Romans, who are fat and surrounded by their slaves. Kubrick immediately cuts to Crassus, the human form of Rome, who is lean, and surrounded by centurions. ByContinue reading “spartacus”