Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Dir. by Agnès Varda Images: Constant movement, both of the camera and of objects and people within the frame (for instance, the rocking chair and swing in Cleo’s otherwise minimalist apartment). Jump...
View ArticleMy Night at Maud’s (1969)
Dir. by Eric Rohmer Images: Complete lack of shot/reverse-shot. Instead, much of the dialogue is framed in static medium shots, some lasting more than a minute. Speaker doesn’t address camera directly,...
View ArticleBreathless (1960)
Dir. by Jean-Luc Godard Images: Typical Godard, though toned down a bit in comparison to his later films: frequent jump cuts and moments of deliberate self-awareness, as in those scenes in which first...
View ArticleClaire’s Knee (1970)
Last night I watched Claire’s Knee (1970), the fifth entry in Eric Rohmer’s series of “Six Moral Tales.” This one is built around Jerome, an unusually self-absorbed rake (even by Rohmer’s standards)...
View ArticleThe Great Films, Part 1
In a deliberate effort to beef up my cinephile cred, lately I’ve been loading my GreenCine queue with selections from the list of 1,000 Greatest Films compiled by the folks at They Shoot Pictures. With...
View ArticleGodard ’66-’67
Seven or eight years ago, when I was just beginning to explore world cinema, I went through a Godard phase during which I watched most of his early features — Breathless, Les Carabiniers, Contempt,...
View ArticleSeeking Film Suggestions
For a couple years now, I’ve been meeting with some friends once or twice a month to eat lunch and discuss a movie. We’ve always taken turns picking films, sometimes grouping the choices around a...
View ArticleTIFF 2012 – Day 4
Like Someone in Love Dir. by Abbas Kiarostami To begin: my favorite cut at TIFF. Soon after arriving at the home of a new client, a melancholic call girl makes small talk before strolling into his...
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