A particularly hard type of film about which to write critically is the comedy of modest ambition that achieves its aim with an acceptable amount of appeal in playing, gags, plot, and outlook, but little more. One does not wish to criticize for not being more (not least as so many are so less), nor …
Paris, Texas (1984), a collaboration by writer Sam Shepard and director Wim Wenders, is a film of dichotomies: dichotomy of location, of ideals, of personalities, of gender roles. Even the words in its title are at odds with each other. The film follows Travis Henderson, played by a worn Harry Dean Stanton, who is always …
Locations in films are rarely the thing an average filmgoer remembers after watching a film; it’s always about the story, character and the lines they say that later form the proverbial ‘word of mouth.’ However, when you think of great confrontations, conversations and simple exchanges, they always take place in a nice public setting – …
A Cat in Paris Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol Written by Jacques-Rémy Girerd and Alain Gagnol France, 2010 As contentious as every Oscar inevitably is, one of the few areas of consistency is in the Best Animated Feature category (and perhaps the Best Documentary Feature). The 84th Academy Awards saw five worthy candidates, …
Études de mouvements à Paris Directed by Joris Ivens France, 1927 Visual studies have long been relegated to the fringe of cinema appreciation. A mainstay of early cinema of attractions, today these films are often appreciated solely for their historical or social value rather than their visual or artistic merits. In 1927 Dutch filmmaker Joris …
Midnight in Paris Written by Woody Allen Directed by Woody Allen USA/Spain, 2011 It has been a long while since Woody Allen has been a reliably strong filmmaker in spite of his yearly output of festival fodder. Midnight in Paris remains lightweight and cannot hold a candle to his best work of the last ten …
Undertones: Volume 10 In 1977, amongst works by Beethoven, Chuck Berry and examples of indigenous music from around the world, Blind Willie Johnson’s mournful blues work, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” was shot into space as part of the Voyager Golden Record. Launched from the Voyager spacecraft, the collection of music, sounds …