cinefile
Media
TV on DVD: Jeff Koons / David Hockney
The Jeff Koons Show is an hour-long career survey of one of the late 20th century’s more controversial American artists—not so much because of the content of his work, but because of the pomposity of the man behind it. Koons really does see himself as a latter-day Michelangelo, a worthy successor to Warhol and his … Continue reading
Manufactured Consent
Manufactured Consent By Hugh Lilly Matthew Barney is an American sculptor, photographer and filmmaker whose most prominent work, The Cremaster Cycle, has been variously described as “one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema” and, at perhaps the opposite end of the appreciation spectrum, “[a] humongous riff on struggle, … Continue reading
Ways of Seeing
Part one of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the 1972 BBC documentary based on Berger’s book of the same name:
Painting with Words
On YouTube in four parts, “Painting with Words,” a great little documentary about the writer and historian David McCullough.
In The Pacific, “ambition and technology may have bled the writing to death”
Andrew O’Hagan in the London Review of Books: The bigger problems in The Pacific began in the first episode, where it became obvious you couldn’t tell the actors apart. The three main guys were all fairly handsome American dudes with dark hair. That’s fine, until you start shooting night combat in the jungle with minimal … Continue reading
R.I.P. Chatroulette, 2009-2010
In the interest of journalistic integrity, I went on Chatroulette this morning to verify its obsolescence. Time it took for someone to show me his unit: 10 seconds. I clicked the “next” button. There, in extreme close-up, was a penis. I clicked “next” again. And there was no one there at all. Just vast, empty … Continue reading
The Last Station
This biopic of Tolstoy opens by quoting the writer: “All, everything I understand, I understand because I love.” This is presumably the sentiment the filmmakers were trying to convey, though it really only comes through once the film decides to trade in pointless slapstick comedy for palpably emotional drama—meaning there’s an uneasy mix of both … Continue reading
Femme Fatale: on The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
Femme Fatale By Hugh Lilly Based on the first book in the “Millennium” trilogy by the late Swedish journalist and sometime novelist Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells a sort of Agatha Christie story in retrospect. A 16-year-old girl, Harriet Volger, goes missing and is presumed dead at a 1965 meeting of … Continue reading
The Power of Art
In this 2006 BBC series, out now on DVD, British Historian Simon Schama looks in detail at eight important works of art ranging from the 16th century—Caravaggio’s “David with the Head of Goliath”—to the late-’50s:—Rothko’s Seagram Murals. The two most interesting entries are where art arguably altered the course of history: “The Death of Marat” … Continue reading
North Country Blues
For capturing and being propelled by the ferocious talent of two of the most interesting musicians of our generation, this truly deserves to be canonised alongside such other great concert films as Scorsese’s The Last Waltz and Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense. Continue reading
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