In one of her essays, film historian Jane Gaines opens with a contemplation about absence in the historical archive. She’s writing about racialized spectatorship. Documents may be lost or never have existed, and the cultural experiences of both Black and White audiences attending race films in some ways defy documentation in their ephemerality. How can… Read more »
Lace flits across the screen. Not in a single shot lingering over this delicate textile, but several still shots, one after another, a discontinuous display of the variety of lace patterns that might exist. We start gently with white laces, then frenetically — aggressively — move onto flickering colors. Lace-making is a women’s handcraft, and… Read more »
Saw (James Wan, 2004) grossed over $100 million at the box office, though it cost just slightly over $1 million to make. As of this writing in October 2021, on Rotten Tomatoes it has an 84% favorable rating from audiences, but only 51% Tomatometer rating from critics (decidedly not fresh). Desson Thomson of The Washington… Read more »
The Parisian surrealists of the 1920s had opinions about everything. About painting. About poetry. About politics. Their ideas came of age in the early decades of cinema so, of course, they had opinions about that too. In surrealist fashion, their taste was often capricious, categorizing directors into who was worth watching and who had succumbed… Read more »
One of the more memorable moments in F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) has seemingly little to do with the main plot about Elmyr de Hory and art forgeries. Toward the beginning of the film, Oja Kodar walks along the street in a mini-dress, and a slew of men ogle her as she passes. “Girl… Read more »
In the classic teen melodrama Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961), the central conflict arises because Wilma (Natalie Wood) is torn between her desire and social mores. She knows what she wants — she wants sex with Bud (Warren Beatty). But society, represented most strongly in the film by the voice of Wilma’s mother,… Read more »