Take Me To Your Cinema

What's this - a new video?
Don't get too excited. It's only a supercut, just under 4 minutes.
Have fun.

Empty Space in Fritz Lang's 'M' - A Supercut Fritz Lang's 1931 film 'M' is renowned for many reasons. One of the fascinating visual choices it makes is the repeated use of empty spaces: the film regular...

Oh hi there. Long time no see.
Here's a thing on Alfonso Cuarón's Netflix masterwork 'Roma' and one possible strategy to use when considering its wilful rejection of standard continuity filmmaking. Enjoy.

Notes On Style: Roma The first video in a new series that examines the philosophy of film style and our relationship to it, we look at Alfonso Cuarón's slow-cinema, long-take mem...

Hey look - I made a trilogy with an overlong and overstuffed third instalment!

Anyway, here is my new essay, a three video deep dive into Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ and the many, many ways it fails at visual storytelling.

Dunkirk: The Failure Of Visual Storytelling - YouTube

'Wes Anderson fans, true to obsessive form, have already assembled some frame-against-frame comparisons using footage from the trailer'

Fans plural?? I think Vulture will find that I'm actually just a lone wolf in these endeavours.

Unpacking the Akira Kurosawa References in Isle of Dogs Wes Anderson pays homage to everything from Stray Dog to Seven Samurai in his latest film.

Here’s a bit of fun. Wes Anderson has publicly stated that his next film, the stop-motion ‘Isle Of Dogs’, was less influenced by other animated films than by the action movies of Akira Kurosawa.
When a sneak-peek was released online, I immediately noticed some visual echoes - so I put this together.
Enjoy.

The Influence of Akira Kurosawa on 'Isle Of Dogs' Wes Anderson has publicly stated that his latest film, the stop-motion 'Isle of Dogs', has been explicitly influenced by the action movies of Akira Kurosawa....

The newest video is about everyone's favourite, weirdly controversial musical-comedy-romantic-drama from last year: La La Land.
We look at the film's epilogue (SPOILERS if you've not seen) and break down the various ways in which the film planted the seeds which blossomed into its great final sequence.
Enjoy

La La Land: Incepting The Dream Ballet | Film Analysis Though a common aspect of many movie musicals in the past, dream-ballets are rarely seen in contemporary cinema, so the inclusion of one in La La Land's fina...

Would like to give a big shout-out to Film School Rejects for sharing the latest video, on Jonathan Demme and Talking Head's 'Stop Making Sense'. Check it out.

Jonathan Demme’s ‘Stop Making Sense’ Is Much More Than A Concert Film Once in a Lifetime a film comes around that shatters genre conventions.

Happy New Year to one and all! In recognition of this, here's a new video, in which I try and argue why Jonatham Demme's magnificent concert film, 'Stop Making Sense' starring Talking Heads is better being thought of as an
'experimental existential film-noir musical'. Enjoy!

Stop Making Sense (1984) - Think Of It As A Musical, Not A Concert Film | Film Analysis In which I explain not only why Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense (1984), starring the band Talking Heads, is the greatest concert film of all time, but als...

It's new video time!
This time I explain just how much information can be conveyed by a single shot - the opening one from Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Punch-Drunk Love' to be precise.
Enjoy!

Punch-Drunk Love: How To Introduce A Character | Film Analysis The opening shot of Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Punch-Drunk Love' is deceptive: though it may simple and innocuous, the amount of information it communicates is ...

The newest video is now available - in which an answer is provided to the question: "what does the use of The Four Tops' track 'It's The Same Old Song' in the Coen Brothers' 'Blood Simple' tell us about the way we are meant to understand the film?"

Blood Simple: It's The Same Old Postmodernism | Film Analysis What does the use of The Four Tops' track 'It's The Same Old Song' in the Coen Brothers' 'Blood Simple' tell us about the way we are meant to understand the ...

Last night I saw Edgar Wright’s ‘Baby Driver’, and having watched B**g Joon-ho’s ‘Okja’ the night before, I was struck by the similarities between the two films.
Generally speaking, both are comic action thrillers made by highly idiosyncratic filmmakers working at the peak of their powers, whilst also being, if not the most accessible, at least the most visible of their films to date.
Each film is playing within a well-established generic narrative convention - ‘a kid and their animal’ for ‘Okja’ (think ‘E.T.’ or ‘Lilo & Stitch’) and ‘lovers on the run’ in the case of ‘Baby Driver’ (c. 'Bonnie & Clyde', 'Badlands', 'Breathless', 'True Romance', et al) – reorganising them in a way that doesn’t alter their recognisable shape, but still enables us to view them in a new light. Furthermore, a potentially awkward tone is struck in both films, between asking the audience to acknowledge, with an ironic distance, this very act of playing with convention whilst trying simultaneously to create a genuine and sincere involvement with the actors within the narrative. And despite the seeming incongruity of these tones, both films more or less pull it off – which is very impressive, but then again, modern audiences are pretty sophisticated.
More specifically, both films have a central set piece involving a madcap chase through a busy mall, as well featuring the line ‘you can eat everything but the squeal’, in reference to pigs, a phrase I’m told is fairly common but which I had never heard before.
Far more significant though is the striking similarity that both films have as a central thematic and narrative idea the issue of ‘communication’.
In ‘Baby Driver’, the central character Baby is near enough mute, speaking only when it is most essential. This is emphasised in his relationship with his carer Joe, who is actually mute – the two communicate without words, through signing. Baby’s real mode of communication is music – his relationship with love interest Deborah is built sharing songs with their names in the title – and the fact that he repurposes the secretly-recorded conversations of those around him as samples to be used in music tracks further underscores the idea of language as essentially meaningless, being nothing more a series of sounds and rhythms to be cut and paste, reorganised, their intended purposes cast to the wayside.
Likewise, ‘Okja’ foregrounds its status as an international co-production by putting the issue of miscommunication front and centre: translations are sacred, so the saying goes. Two primary languages are spoken throughout the film, often relying on an intermediate translator, and often at cross-purposes. The inability of the film’s various conflicted parties to properly speak to each other exacerbates the conflicts at the film’s centre, and further foreground the legitimate communicative connection between the film’s protagonist Mija and her superpig Okja, who are very much able to communicate with ease and intimacy. Though it is played for laughs, the repeated situation of Mija not being allowed to speak with Okja over the phone represents a ripping asunder of this only direct and clear line of communication in the film.

NEW VIDEO! My one concession to the mainstream is making a video about a David Lynch film - mull that over.

The Elephant Man - The Power Of Looking | Film Analysis Despite being one of his most famous films, 'The Elephant Man' is not often thought of as one of David Lynch's definitive films; and whilst it doesn't have m...

Just surpassed 1000 subscribers on YouTube! Now, I know that's not that significant a figure, but it's a pretty big deal to me :) I'm so excited, I'll celebrate like Al Gore.

Al Gore Celebrating I don't own the song or the clip. Its just funny.

So the newest video is online! It explores how the filmmaking itself is used to advance the theme of ambiguity in Jack Clayton's 'The Innocents'.

It's also up in time for to commemorate the 10th anniversary of cinematographer Freddie Francis' death, who believed this film to be his best work!

The Innocents - How To Create Ambiguity | Film Analysis 'The Innocents', Jack Clayton's 1961 adaption of Henry James' novella 'The Turn of The Screw', is not only one of the great horror films, it is one of the gr...

was Martin Scorsese's Silence, which has finally made its way to Australian cinemas. A fascinating film, powerful but flawed, it follows two Portuguese Jesuits who brave 17th Japan at a time when Christianity was outlawed on pain on torture. Their aim is to find their AWOL mentor, about whom circle rumours that he is living 'like a Japanese'. The story belongs to that problematic school of post-colonial fiction, like 'Heart of Darkness' and Kipling's 'The Man Who Would Be King', that questions the colonialist experiment based on the effect it has on the colonialist rather than the colonised. However it raides interesting questions about the nature of faith and the best way to serve God. Indeed, as a grumpy atheist, I feel that some of the film's power is lost on me. Scorsese's visual approach here is more subdued than usual, probably because he takes the subject matter so seriously. Nonetheless, there are still many moments of profound beauty and even more of bold experimentation that could've fallen flat, but actually work very effectively. The question asked by the film is how do the faithful persevere when presented with the silence of God - and it is interesting how Scorsese demonstrates that silence. It is almost as if the camera takes God's place in providing the answers the characters seek. All around the acting is reasonable - Liam Neeson may have a particular set of skills, but being a catholic priest is not among them. But you do wonder if, overall, the film might have had more dramatic heft had Scorsese been able to use his original casting ideas: Gael Garcia Bernal, Benicia Del Toro and Daniel Day Lewis. Overall though, it is an impressive film and one that I suspect will grow in stature as the years go on.

The latest video, which has been up for a few weeks now.

Comparing the different approaches Frank Capra's perennial favourite 'It's A Wonderful Life' and its obscure, made-for-TV remake 'It Happened One Christmas' take when telling their stories visually. Enjoy!

Remaking "It's A Wonderful Life": What Are The Differences? | Film Analysis One of the most interesting things about 'It Happened One Christmas', the 1977 TV remake of 'It's A Wonderful Life', is how closely the narrative sticks to t...