Although rare; anthology films consisting of multiple acts and directors started as early as the 1930’s when vaudeville acts were cut together. Essentially these omnibus films are short films cut together and marketed as a feature film. What differentiates them from watching 90 minutes worth of short films is that they were made in conjunction with the final project in… Read more »
Years ago, Vanity Fair magazine began running a series of articles on film. Perhaps the most popular was “The Film Snob’s Dictionary,” a mini-series that eventually became a small bookIet contained cheerful, mirthfully malicious entries that were both real and humorous. It lampooned the fact that many film (or cinema, but never movie) fans all knew the “right” films and… Read more »
A double feature can be defined as two different films with similar theme, style, substance or ideas. It can consist of two twin movies from one director like The Wrestler and Black Swan or Goodfellas and Casino, where the same themes are executed with the same style—fleshing out one intriguing subject. They can be two extremely similar films like Fearless… Read more »
There are plenty of moving documentaries (The Fog of War, Harlan County, USA, Michael Apted’s Up series ) and plenty of fine rock ‘n’ roll films (American Graffiti, Backbeat, Almost Famous), but there are only a select number of really excellent rock ‘n’ roll documentaries. Given the built-in commercial appeal of the subjects, it’s been all too easy to make… Read more »
“New Wave” was a term initially used to describe a handful of directors attached to the Cahiers Du Cinema magazine and the movies these young filmmakers were making in a period ranging from the 1950s until the 1970s. However, this term has since become synonymous with a much more diverse period in French film history. Although the Cahiers crowd of… Read more »
There are many different components that make up the eccentric style of a Wes Anderson movie. The use of distinctive color patterns, perfectly symmetrical shots, and a similar menagerie of obscure actors and A-listers have all become characteristic of the visionary filmmaker. Arguably more distinct, though, is his heavy focus on character development, and the recurring themes of family dysfunction,… Read more »
Does the actor make the movie, or does the movie make the actor (neither is true, but let’s pretend one is)? To build a case for the actor as the supreme cinematic being, the straw allows us to drink from the cinematic fountain, you need not look any further than the work of Joaquin Phoenix. Beginning acting at a young… Read more »
Seoul born and raised, Park Chan-Wook studied philosophy at Sogang University, where he ran a film club, and then began his career as a film critic. His articles allowed him to gain a position as assistant director on a few films. Park-Chan Wook began his career as a feature director in 1992 with his film The Moon is the Dream… Read more »
The term ‘fourth wall’ is an expression that was born in the art of theatre. It can be defined as an invisible wall separating yourself from what you are watching; in this case it is the film. So in order to beak the fourth wall, the character will directly communicate to or at least acknowledge the audience. This can also… Read more »
The Italian neo-realist film movement only lasted for a brief ten-year period directly following World War II. Twenty years of fascist rule in Italy which strictly controlled what was permissible subject matter for the Italian film industry, as well as the other arts, stifled an entire generation of Italian artists. At the end of World War II, when fascist control… Read more »
If character choice drives the story, dilemma is the storytelling element that engages us to it. Choice will only be as good as the situation that precedes it. If choice is a response to your character´s personality, then you can only truly know your character, if you introduce the proper challenge for him to confront. Here is a list of… Read more »
Whether audiences are ashamed or comfortable in their sexuality, they will always be drawn to sex in cinema. It is more socially acceptable to see sex simulated in films than it is in pornography. Audiences are often introduced to – and influenced by – the sex they see depicted in films before they experience it themselves. The following list is… Read more »
Walt Disney Pictures. Just read those words and you will have visions of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi, Dumbo, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and the many other animation classics that will live as long as people see and love motion pictures. But those unforgettable pen and ink creations weren’t all that there was to Walt Disney… Read more »
Being a good actor takes dedication and willingness to accept risks. Part of these risks that an actor must take is to pick roles that will allow them to grow in their craft, even if the part does not prove commercially successful. A comedic actor switching to a dramatic role could prove to be either a good career movie or… Read more »
There is definitely something appealing about the word trilogy. In any art, but in cinema especially. Whenever somewhere in the world someone says, “You know, I really loved Fassbinder’s Lola,“ or, “Man, I finally saw that Oldboy movie; it’s really something else!,“ on nine out of ten of the occasions the answer will be, “Yeah, it’s a good one, but,… Read more »
What do Sting, Ice Cube, PJ Harvey, and Meatloaf have in common? Besides music, each has had a significant role in a major feature film over the past few decades. Rock stars have starred in movies since the birth of rock ‘n roll. ‘The King,’ Elvis Presley, made over thirty films across his extensive movie career. Most, if not all,… Read more »
On November 10, 2014, one of the greatest legends of Japanese cinema passed away: Having experienced almost 40 years of unparalleled stardom, Ken Takakura’s death of lymphoma at age 83 severed one of the last remaining links to the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema. In America and Europe, he is often called the “Japanese Clint Eastwood”, a term which probably… Read more »
Japanese anime are often about children, but they are certainly not primarily for a young audience. These films offer an insight into the subconscious of Japanese society. A country that during the Second World War believed in the irrefutable military power of the state and the myth of the “divine wind” –the self-sacrifice of the kamikaze pilots. However, after the… Read more »
For many of the cinematic greats, it is hard to determine which are the greatest of their great works. Can a filmmaker have only one masterpiece? Or can they have many? Is there a difference between a “masterpiece” and a “masterwork”? On the other hand, is it all just semantics, and there’s no point in even discussing this? These questions… Read more »
