notes on projections

Notas sobre lo audiovisual.

filmsteria:

Cortometraje: WESTERN SPAGHETTI... unos minutos de stop-motion.

bbook: A whole generation of critics misunderstood Cassavetes so spectacularly that the ones who are still around are probably too embarrassed to take a second look. The Gustav Mahler of cinema, Cassavetes was excoriated in his lifetime for formlessness, lack of focus and modulation, etc. and ad infinitum. And, like Mahler, his work has come back after his death to haunt those who were so quick with their doctrinaire judgments. Actor’s Studio exercises, formless improvisations, and unmodulated emotionalism are all you’re going to see if you look at every movie with the expectation that it will/should be broken up into visually and behaviorally pointed units. Films like A Woman Under the Influence defy a century’s worth of film theory, screenwriting tips, and film school orthodoxy. When you look at a close-up in a film by almost anyone else, you’re looking at a representation of the idea of an emotion, no matter how detailed the acting. In Cassavetes, every blink, every shrug, every hesitation counts and drives the story forward.What is A Woman Under the Influence? If you look at it from one end of the telescope, it’s a hyper-realistic portrait of a woman going mad, a bravura performance in a vaguely working-class setting, a sort of déclassé Americanization of Ingmar Bergman’s Face to Face (1976), without Bergman. From the other end, it’s a richly detailed experience, alternately soaring and gut-wrenching, composed in two long, mighty, almost-but-not-quite unwieldy movements. And it’s about…what? Men and women? Family life? The difficulty of distinguishing between your real and ideal selves? Male embarrassment? All of the above, none of the above. Tagging a movie like Woman with something as neat as a “subject” is a fairly useless activity. “John had antennae like Proust,” Peter Falk once wrote. A Woman Under the Influence and Faces, probably his two greatest films, are both ultimately as impossible to pin down as In Search of Lost Time. Like Proust before him, Cassavetes rode the whims, upsets, vagaries, and mysterious impulses of humanity like a champion surfer.

bbook:

A whole generation of critics misunderstood Cassavetes so spectacularly that the ones who are still around are probably too embarrassed to take a second look. The Gustav Mahler of cinema, Cassavetes was excoriated in his lifetime for formlessness, lack of focus and modulation, etc. and ad infinitum. And, like Mahler, his work has come back after his death to haunt those who were so quick with their doctrinaire judgments. Actor’s Studio exercises, formless improvisations, and unmodulated emotionalism are all you’re going to see if you look at every movie with the expectation that it will/should be broken up into visually and behaviorally pointed units. Films like A Woman Under the Influence defy a century’s worth of film theory, screenwriting tips, and film school orthodoxy. When you look at a close-up in a film by almost anyone else, you’re looking at a representation of the idea of an emotion, no matter how detailed the acting. In Cassavetes, every blink, every shrug, every hesitation counts and drives the story forward.

What is A Woman Under the Influence? If you look at it from one end of the telescope, it’s a hyper-realistic portrait of a woman going mad, a bravura performance in a vaguely working-class setting, a sort of déclassé Americanization of Ingmar Bergman’s Face to Face (1976), without Bergman. From the other end, it’s a richly detailed experience, alternately soaring and gut-wrenching, composed in two long, mighty, almost-but-not-quite unwieldy movements. And it’s about…what? Men and women? Family life? The difficulty of distinguishing between your real and ideal selves? Male embarrassment? All of the above, none of the above. Tagging a movie like Woman with something as neat as a “subject” is a fairly useless activity. “John had antennae like Proust,” Peter Falk once wrote. A Woman Under the Influence and Faces, probably his two greatest films, are both ultimately as impossible to pin down as In Search of Lost Time. Like Proust before him, Cassavetes rode the whims, upsets, vagaries, and mysterious impulses of humanity like a champion surfer.

iwdrm: “Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.” 8½ (1963) This post marks the one-year anniversary of this little tumblr. Thanks to all readers and followers.

iwdrm:

“Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.”

8½ (1963)

This post marks the one-year anniversary of this little tumblr. Thanks to all readers and followers.

cinemanu: “YOU ARE THE GREATEST FILM-MAKER AT WORK TODAY”  read it! an awesome letter form Kubrick to Bergman UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL PICTURES UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA February 9, 1960 Dear Mr. Bergman,  You have most certainly received enough acclaim and success throughout the world to make this note quite unnecessary. But for whatever it’s worth, I should like to add my praise and gratitude as a fellow director for the unearthly and brilliant contribution you have made to the world by your films (I have never been in Sweden and have therefore never had the pleasure of seeing your theater work). Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today. Beyond that, allow me to say you are unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfullness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film. I believe you are blessed with wonderfull actors. Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin live vividly in my memory, and there are many others in your acting company whose names escape me. I wish you and all of them the very best of luck, and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films.  Best Regards, (Signed, ‘Stanley Kubrick’) (via) Stanley Kubrick

cinemanu:

“YOU ARE THE GREATEST FILM-MAKER AT WORK TODAY” 

read it! an awesome letter form Kubrick to Bergman

UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL PICTURES

UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA

February 9, 1960

Dear Mr. Bergman, 

You have most certainly received enough acclaim and success throughout the world to make this note quite unnecessary. But for whatever it’s worth, I should like to add my praise and gratitude as a fellow director for the unearthly and brilliant contribution you have made to the world by your films (I have never been in Sweden and have therefore never had the pleasure of seeing your theater work). Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today. Beyond that, allow me to say you are unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfullness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film. I believe you are blessed with wonderfull actors. Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin live vividly in my memory, and there are many others in your acting company whose names escape me. I wish you and all of them the very best of luck, and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films. 

Best Regards,

(Signed, ‘Stanley Kubrick’)

(via)

Stanley Kubrick

Johan van der Keuken // Blind Child, 1964 “Nadie despierta diciendo: Me encanta ser ciego!” Este documental de 25 minutos nos expone la vida de un grupo de niños ciegos. Hablar sobre temas de ésta índole siempre es difícil, el no pasar la línea de respeto, pero si abarcar con profundidad y complejidad el objeto. Normalmente, los documentales que tratan estos temas, toman la ruta fácil y denigran al sujeto que esta siendo filmado. Van der Keuken tiene esto en mente, y se impone como igual ante el sujeto, bajo una línea de respeto. Nos hace entender el mundo de los niños por medio de sus experiencias diarias y de rutina. La escuela, los juegos, los paseos, el ejercicio, y sobre todo en pequeñas cosas que marcan la diferencia de su experiencia en el mundo, como el énfasis en el sonido. El principio de la obra me pareció increíble, voz en off de niños ciegos hablando sobre ellos mismos, mientras vamos de negros a imágenes cotidianas que contrastan las dos distintas experiencias. El poder del documental trasciende su temática, por la forma en que esta construido y por su acercamiento respetuoso a los sujetos. Es conmovedor en el punto de la delicada línea que existe de la cual nos dejan ser pacientes observadores por un momento. 

Johan van der Keuken // Blind Child, 1964

“Nadie despierta diciendo: Me encanta ser ciego!”

Este documental de 25 minutos nos expone la vida de un grupo de niños ciegos. Hablar sobre temas de ésta índole siempre es difícil, el no pasar la línea de respeto, pero si abarcar con profundidad y complejidad el objeto. Normalmente, los documentales que tratan estos temas, toman la ruta fácil y denigran al sujeto que esta siendo filmado. Van der Keuken tiene esto en mente, y se impone como igual ante el sujeto, bajo una línea de respeto. Nos hace entender el mundo de los niños por medio de sus experiencias diarias y de rutina. La escuela, los juegos, los paseos, el ejercicio, y sobre todo en pequeñas cosas que marcan la diferencia de su experiencia en el mundo, como el énfasis en el sonido. El principio de la obra me pareció increíble, voz en off de niños ciegos hablando sobre ellos mismos, mientras vamos de negros a imágenes cotidianas que contrastan las dos distintas experiencias. El poder del documental trasciende su temática, por la forma en que esta construido y por su acercamiento respetuoso a los sujetos. Es conmovedor en el punto de la delicada línea que existe de la cual nos dejan ser pacientes observadores por un momento. 


Joris Ivens // Regen, 1929 Regen, de Joris Ivens es de las primeras obras del director. Antes de que comenzara a filmar obras con contenido político. Aquí el director se centra en un cine mas experimental, a la par con las vanguardias alemanas y rusas de la época. Lo que más me gusta de Regen, es que en su simpleza encuentras lo hermoso. El cortometraje es la oda a una ciudad, la fotografía esta desarrollada con una estética magnifica, casi preciosista. En cuanto comienza a llover nos transmite melancolía y delicadeza humana. El agua como símbolo de limpieza y del ir y venir, que logra pone en pausa a la acelerada ciudad moderna.

Joris Ivens // Regen, 1929

Regen, de Joris Ivens es de las primeras obras del director. Antes de que comenzara a filmar obras con contenido político. Aquí el director se centra en un cine mas experimental, a la par con las vanguardias alemanas y rusas de la época. Lo que más me gusta de Regen, es que en su simpleza encuentras lo hermoso. El cortometraje es la oda a una ciudad, la fotografía esta desarrollada con una estética magnifica, casi preciosista. En cuanto comienza a llover nos transmite melancolía y delicadeza humana. El agua como símbolo de limpieza y del ir y venir, que logra pone en pausa a la acelerada ciudad moderna.