An ongoing dialogue with the Criterion Collection: "Films wait patiently and are willing to teach us again" -Roger Ebert
Hamlet is a play of rituals. Of things done in proper order, in the right fashion, and for the right reasons. The entire play consists of instances where ritual is distorted or cunningly disguised as an act of purity or loyalty. From the distasteful wedding before we begin, to Hamlet's sabotage of a play, to … Continue reading #82 The Ritual That Is: HAMLET. Laurence Olivier 1948
Kieślowski may present these films in stages such that when they're done they are to be considered a whole (like the Dekalog, or even like the French flag with its triplet notions of "liberté, egalité, fraternité"), but that might make it easy to forget the singular moments. A musical score thrown in the trash shocks … Continue reading #588 THREE COLORS: BLUE Krzysztof Kieślowski 1993
"If you ridicule our traditions..." As far as symbols of latent fear in technology go, Godzilla is up there. His roots lie in Frankenstein's monster, which also served as a baseline for the Terminator, 30 years later after another signficant bump in technology. With these "bumps" come existential threats; it's a pattern well established in … Continue reading #594 GODZILLA: The Monster We Made Ishiro Honda 1954
A compelling and even inspirational film, as a film. I was soaking in the Iranian landscape out the windows as if I were the passenger: make no mistake, we are the passengers. Ashes to ashes dust to dust: From start to finish images of dust and earth, and the driver next to the earth. The … Continue reading #45 Emotional Warfare in TASTE OF CHERRY Abbas Kiarostami 1997
Criterion Critical Mass 