Filmmaking is an act of optimism. Setting ideas to paper; convincing others to come and join the party; devoting time, money, blood, sweat, and tears to capture those images on celluloid; believing those images can carry meaning throughout the world; … Continue reading THE TALES OF HOFFMANN
With shelter-in-place orders here to stay for the foreseeable future, moviegoing remains a homebound activity. That’s fine and all, there are more movies to see via streaming than we could watch in several lifetimes, but a wealth of options can … Continue reading BLACK NARCISSUS
“I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing – it should have a little bit of magic. Magic being untouchable and very difficult to cast, you can’t deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them.” –Emeric Pressburger Continue reading Born On This Day – December 5, 1902
“Of course, all films are surrealist. They are because they are making something that looks like a real world but isn’t.” “Seventy years ago there were men like D.W. Griffith and seventy years later – now – there are not many men like Martin Scorsese. But so long as there is one there will be others, and the art of the cinema will survive.” –Michael Powell “One, we owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss. Two, every single foot in our … Continue reading Born On This Day – September 30
“The great innovators have always been fearless . . . I have fallen off haystacks, out of trees, over cliffs. I have been nearly drowned, shot and hanged. I have been in countless car crashes without getting a scratch. I have been alone in an office with Louis B. Mayer.” –Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Saturday, April 27, 2013
The study of cinema is the study of directors, or more accurately, the study of auteurs. Single visions brought to life via a committee. Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Ford, all of these names immediately pop into our minds when we think of directors. Their films are connected through common motifs, iconic imagery, recurring themes, and most importantly, a singular vision captured. One man helming the show. The problems with this idea is simple, cinema is quite possibly the most collaborative form of artistic expression. Both a blend of consumer oriented marketing and genuine emotional pathos, it takes a village of hundreds, sometimes … Continue reading The Archers
“I make films for myself. What I express I hope most people will understand. For the rest, well, that’s their problem.” –Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Tuesday, February 19, 2013
“Our business was not realism but surrealism. We were storytellers, fantasists. This is why we could never get on with the documentary film movement. Documentary films started with poetry and finished as prose. We storytellers started with naturalism and finished with fantasy.” –Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Saturday, January 26, 2013
