Archive for the ‘landscape’ Category
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
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
Love is Not Enough
Many people I respect a great deal recommended I Am Love (2010) to me. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film introduces us to an upper-class Italian family undergoing generational shifts. The opening credits glide through exquisite black-and-white shots of Milan under snow, which quickly establishes an emotional and aesthetic tone. The dinner scene that sets up [...]
In: beginnings, contemporary, film, landscape · Tagged with: I Am Love, Luca Guadagnino, Milan, postaweek2011, Tilda Swinton
All the World’s a Garden
From beginnings to endings now, as the semester closes down. This image is from the ending of The Constant Gardener (2005), directed by Fernando Meirelles. Though it’s hard to talk about endings without spoilers, it doesn’t give away too much to say that the protagonist of the film, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), is the constant [...]
In: contemporary, endings, film, landscape, memory · Tagged with: Fernando Meirelles, John LeCarre, Kenya, Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardener
Up in the Air
Look up. The blast of blue grabs and holds the eye, until the balls in the air direct us to the caption. The balls are almost a line of text themselves, hovering horizontally in a space with no ground. They pair beautifully with the verticality of the messier pair of trees. The simple contrasts of [...]
In: contemporary, landscape, photography · Tagged with: John Baldessari, Museum of Contemporary Photography