“So, Von Sternberg’s movies had to have plots even though they already had them inherent in the images. What he did was make movies naturally — he lived in a visual world. The explanation plots he made up out of some logic having nothing to do with the visuals of his films. His expression was… Read more »
A heart beats on the soundtrack. We see a head covered in a stocking, but the face is not visible. The stocking tears, revealing layers upon layers of tearing material, newspaper, collaged mouths cut from magazines ripping away to reveal only more mouths. After the credits, we return to a shot of a woman with… Read more »
In Jonathan Rosenbaum’s definitive 2002 text on the Ukrainian filmmaker Alexander Dovzhenko, he persuasively argues that Dovzhenko’s cinema represents a form of “heroic portraiture” more than it does a vehicle for storytelling or narrative expression. Comparing Dovzhenko’s work with a more contemporary film by Jean-Marie Straub, Rosenbaum writes that “[Straub’s film] qualifies as heroic portraiture… Read more »
What does it mean when a film is “handmade”? If we’re talking about experimental film, the term “handmade” usually refers to techniques like direct animation, processing film at home instead of sending it to a lab, or otherwise directly manipulating your negative or film print (bleaching, dying, etc.). Naomi Uman engages in all these techniques…. Read more »
assault. nouna: a violent physical or verbal attackb: a military attack usually involving direct combat with enemy forcesc: a concerted effortFrom the Latin (ad) “saltus” meaning, “to leap” In a scene from Lana Wachowski’s most recent film, The Matrix Resurrections, she introduces a new character to the mythos of The Matrix Saga named “Bugs” (yes,… Read more »
Guest post by Anthony Silvestri, member of the Underground Film Series programming team. After taking fall semester off, on January 27th the Underground Film Series returns to IU Cinema. This is the first of two screenings that reaffirm our central mission: to program rarely shown, subversive works that communicate a unique vision of cinema. We view… Read more »