A selection of writings from around the internet on the topics of the glory of Ralph Wiggum, how Germans changed Hollywood, the buried treasure lie, and belittled movie novelizations.
A different perspective on futuristic dystopias is the view of the utopia without limitation. What does society do when faced with freedom without restriction? The Oculus Rift has already made it possible to experience virtual reality in an entirely new way. Technology has afforded us promise to rebuild reality, one that is limitless in its use and format.
What does a modern vampire do nowadays? If you’re immortal you’ve probably travelled the world, read all of the books, heard all of the music, and seen all of the things that time lays out before you. Up until now, the perspective of the vampire has either been of the monstrous Dracula or the teenage whiner with a god complex. Few films delve into a magic …
The postmodern Western films of the 1960s and 1970s eschewed the American myth of classic Westerns, instead focusing on tough examinations of the culture’s predilection for war, violence and oppression. The vocabulary of the classic Western film was often retained, however, but rather than being used to uphold …
His name is Ghost Dog. He lives on a rooftop in Jersey City, surrounded by the carrier pigeons he uses to communicate with the mafia. Working as a hit man, he lives his life according to Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. His best friend is a Haitian ice cream vendor who only speaks French. On …
For all their style, the source of the greatness in the films of Jim Jarmusch is not aesthetic, but conversational. Yes his oddball characters travel through some beautifully framed environments, but it’s the often mundane, ever-poignant banter that sets his films apart. Two Mafiosi discuss the contradictions of chivalry and feminism in …
A Most Wanted Man opens on the still waters of a canal coming to a roil as an undisclosed boat passes by in the waking dawn of the morning. The shot is held for an extended period of time, allowing the atmosphere and meaning to naturally reveal itself. It’s an effective metaphor for the imminent eruption of repressed emotions …
The postmodern film Nachthelle is Florian Gottschick’s diploma film and introduces the young, innovative director and recent graduate to a wide audience at the Munich Filmfest. Based on the title of a poem written by Johann Gabriel Seidl and a musical piece composed by Franz Schubert, Nachthelle explores the human unconsciousness, love and fear as well as…
At first, the Dallinger family seems like an idyllic, typical middle-class family: Hans (Tobias Moretti) and his wife Elli (Stephanie Japp) live in a nice suburban house with their two kids and a dog. They are shown playing ping pong in their backyard, joking around and having a good time until Hans spots their neighbors’ new satellite. The previous, happy…
The zombie as a metaphor for dysfunctional and alienating systems in our society is a popular since the Night of Living Dead. The concept of living flesh, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is a manifestation of feeling alien in your own skin and in your environment.