February 2012
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“Money kills the imagination”
– Vittorio De Sica
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Germania anno zero (1948)
Germany Year Zero is a film by Robert Rossellini. This is the third film in Rossellini’s war trilogy that began with 1945’s Rome Open City and 1946’s Paisan. In an interesting twist Germany Year Zero takes place in Berlin examining post war Germany in much the same way that the other two examined Italy. In the previous two films the Germans were the aggressors and now much like the...
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Piasa (1946)
Piasa is film by Roberto Rossellini. This was the director’s second major neorealist film after Rome Open City and is apart of his war trilogy. In studying this movement I thought it fitting to begin with these Rossellini’s films and like this, most posts from here on out will concern themselves with important films of the movement. For an overview on Neorealism please click here :)
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“The unpopularity of Neorealism by the public is that the public wants films that...”
– Luigi Comencini
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“realism is nothing other than the artistic form of the truth”
– Robert Rosselini
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Roma, città aperta (1945)
Rome Open City is a film by Roberto Rossellini. This film really was the start of the Italian Neorealist film movement. For the New Year I have set out to study this movement and thought it fitting to begin with Rossellini’s Rome Open City. Technically this is the third neorealist film, directors Mario Camerini and Giuseppe De Santi released neorealist films in the same year just months...
January 2012
20 posts
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“I believe that the world goes on getting worse because we are not truly aware of...”
– Cesare Zavattini
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Italian Neorealism: An overview
Quick note: Over the next few months I will be posting Italian Neorealist films as a study them. This post will constantly be linked as a source of reference.
Italian Neorealist cinema was a film movement in Italy from 1945-1952. Some place the movement’s end at ’55 while most would agree the high point was certainly from ’45-’49 (before laws were put into place that I will touch on later)....
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Man Bites Dog (1992)
Man Bites Dog is a film by Remy Belvaux and Andre Bonzel. This is one of the more original mockumentaries to come up with a really novel concept. A crew of filmmakers set out to make a documentary about a serial killer, recording his murders and methods. Extremely controversial, it picked up an NC-17 rating, killing any chance for it to be advertised widely or shown at most commercial...
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A Page of Madness 狂った一頁 (1926)
A Page of Madness is a silent film by Kinugasa Teinosuke. I have been wanting to see this film for years and finally managed to get it. Easily the most challenging and artistic silent film I have seen, it originally came out in 1926 but was lost and wasn’t found again until 1971. In its state from 71’ it is missing a third of its story, and yet it still manages to...
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Wayne Shorter Twelve More Bars to Go
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Shadows (1959)
Shadows is a film by John Cassavetes. This was the independent director’s first film and actually my favorite although everything he would later do would involve more complex characterization. There is something simple and endearing about his first film. Coming out in 1959 it would represent and become in terms of aesthetics a cousin of what was happening at the same time in France with...
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El Sur (1983)
El Sur is a film by Victor Erice. This is the director’s second film released ten years after his masterpiece in The Spirit of the Beehive. He would go on to only make one more film nine years after this, The Quince Tree Sun. Said to be an extreme perfectionist; he has only made these three feature films in all. Sharing in common with many other auteur directors, Erice too began...
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My Top Ten Albums of 2011
I love top ten lists, because they say so much about the person offering them. Because Japan is so slow in getting new films (no Shame release) and my bit torrent sites can’t ever give me the films I want to see (The Interrupters doesn’t exist) the only possible list I can do for the time being is music…
10. Drive OST
The film was entirely an exercise in stylization, and the music...
December 2011
17 posts
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Vengeance is Mine 復讐するは我にあり (1979)
Vengence is Mine is a film by Imamura Shohei. It is a complex and intricate study of a killer and more importantly how he became that way. Based on the true story of serial killer Akira Nishiguchi A.K.A. the black gold medalist, who after killing two, took the police on 3 month nationwide man hunt in which he killed 3 more before being apprehended. The failure of the police to apprehend...
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Family Game 家族ゲーム(1983)
Family Game is a film by Yoshimitsu Morita. This is an interesting newer Japanese film that I had wanted to see. Although it came out in 1983 I say it is newer because I pretty much stop in the 60s when it comes to Japanese films with a few exceptions, notably a film or two by Oshima Nagisa and Immamura Shohei and newer directors like Kore-eda Hirokzu and Itami Juzo (who actually...
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Pale Flower (1964)
Pale Flower is a film by Shinoda Masahiro. Shinoda aside from Teshigahara is my favorite 60s New Wave/ Avant Garde director in terms of style. Working in several genres this was a yakuza film that was the first film of his to really bring him any acclaim. Years later he would jump to period films, keeping the same high contrast style in both Double Suicide and Assassination....
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undun (2011)
The Roots new album undun is the hip-hop bands 10th studio album. To make ten hop-hop albums and still maintain relevancy is a testament in itself, including the fact that many of the members are in their 40s. And fact is this could possibly be their best effort sounding hungrier and more authentic then ever with this effort that is a concept album. Citing existentialist themes they presented a...
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Children of Hiroshima 原爆の子 (1952)
Children of Hiroshima is a film Kaneto Shindo. This was one of the director’s first films and really the first film to bring him sound recognition. As the title suggests the film is about the sorrow of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Coming out in 1952, the film is notable to really be the first film that confronts the bombing of Hiroshima directly, coming out just as...
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November 2011
29 posts
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Kuroneko 藪の中の黒猫 (1968)
Kuroneko is a film by Kaneto Shindo. Coming out sometime after Onibaba this film continues the theme of using Japanese ghost fables to create period horror films. In both films, the story centers on strong female lead characters that become demonic do to circumstances of war. This all has illusions to Shindo’s earlier films that were related more directly to war and the atomic...