Archive for the ‘film’ Category
It’s a Metaphor
My students are writing their first papers of the semester now and struggling with Mark Doty’s essay “Souls on Ice,” in which Doty describes metaphors as “containers” for emotion, or tangible vessels for intangible ideas. This definition functions much like metaphors themselves: making the complex simpler, if not simple. Baseball, of course, is a game [...]
In: contemporary, film, photography · Tagged with: Bennett Miller, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Mark Doty, metaphors, Michael Lewis, Moneyball, postaweek2011
Eden, Texas
I enjoyed The Tree of Life (2011) more than the people I saw it with. I agreed with them that Terrence Malick’s latest film, which won the Cannes d’Or, didn’t succeed in fully integrating its parts. The beginning and ending were surreal or abstract representations of cosmic states, whereas the middle was a relatively realistic portrayal [...]
In: childhood, contemporary, film, pastoral · Tagged with: Eden, postaweek2011, Terrence Malick, Tree of Life
Waaaay Beautiful
The title of Peter Weir’s last film, The Way Back (2010), is misleading. It suggests that the extraordinary journey of a handful of escaped prisoners from Siberia to India is all about returning home to something. And “way” is a wishy washy noun that is easily confused here with its jocular adjective: WAAAAY back! It’s unfortunate. The [...]
In: contemporary, endings, film, landscape, photography · Tagged with: Peter Weir, postaweek2011, The Way Back
One Too Many
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or number 7, part two, is a film with many endings. I’m sure it has at least seven if you count all the signs of finish: a death and resurrection, villains vanquished one by one, a battle won against all odds, the reappearance of favorite characters from early in [...]
In: contemporary, endings, film · Tagged with: David Yates, Deathly Hallows Part Two, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, postaweek2011
Slow Motion Picture
The clip above is a good representation of its film, Sweetgrass (2009): slow, deliberate, and beautifully shot. The artistry is apparent, but the filmmakers, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, have the good sense to make the “story” subtle. As in this excerpt, the documentary is not narrated or prefaced or even introduced except through these [...]
In: beginnings, contemporary, documentary, environmental art, film, landscape, pastoral · Tagged with: documentary, Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, postaweek, sheep, Sweetgrass