Category: Articles
Luchino Visconti: The German Trilogy
Movies have been called the art form of the twentieth century so often that it has become tiresome to refute the claim. Especially since this most degenerate of hybrids meshes the worst of all worlds into predictable pastiches of sentimental melodrama geared toward the mummification of the world’s weakest minds. Despite the occasional outburst of…
Time travel and film: Examining a science fiction sub-genre
Despite the popularity of time travel as a narrative device, it’s amazing just how few truly great films there are in this science fiction sub-genre. The concept of time travel has played a pivotal role in science fiction since the late nineteenth century, when it was most frequently used as a mode for exploring either…
Sex and the movies: The age of anticlimax
We need better sex scenes in the movies. You may laugh. Even snicker. But it’s a problem. Sex scenes today, in general, stink. True, this is a broad statement, and there are many exceptions. I wonder, though, if filmmakers in the not-so-new millennia often view such content as obligatory, like a car chase in an…
Cinema and combat: Is filming a great battle scene a lost art?
Is filming a great battle scene a lost art? I pondered this question recently after watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) in all its lengthy, kill-the-orcs-in-creative-ways glory. Director Peter Jackson certainly knows how to helm an epic contest—the thrilling defense of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) is…
Shakespeare’s history plays: Precursor to the film franchise?
Ahh, the film franchise. A popular film with interesting characters and a decent premise soon spawns a sequel, then becomes a trilogy, and so on, until it becomes unprofitable, unpopular, or both. If the franchise is based on a book series, every effort will be made to keep the money factory running as long as…