Even the casual film fan knows by now Riefenstahl’s name is mud — and for good reason. She was — one can say with reason — a Nazi, or at the very least, a Nazi collaborator. Her firm denials, defence of her work, and it sickens me to say, outright pride, at her work are all chronicled here. As she ages, we see the weight placed upon her soul by her knowledge and unconvincing lies concerning Nazi war crimes. Much…
Melancholy pervades Kurosawa’s last collaboration with Toshiro Mifune. Perhaps as Ozu had died just a few years before, and this was his first film since then. Kurosawa’s study of a young doctor is a lesson in patience, memory, and humility. The film’s use of silence is astounding. Not just because of his lengthy run-times, Kurosawa seems to understand patience more than any other director. In his films, patience equates with peace. And I certainly got some peace from this film. It was a rewarding. experience just to sit with it, the aura and mood that it conjured. Something magical was happening.
Kael called Spielberg a magician. It’s time to call Tom Cruise a magician, too, only he’a a different kind of magician. An escapist. He escapes various degrees of trouble in this new, eighth and final instalment of the hit franchise. For a film which spends so much time and energy preaching about winning people over, its appeal by this point is very much for the faithful You either love Cruise or you don’t. You’re either swept up by McQuarrie’s “and…
The full film is unavailable but I was able to see an extended clip of this work in this interview with Spike.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfxCcePNBw4&t=341s This is an outstanding piece of work for a student, one which contains far more wit and insight than the D.W. Griffith film which inspired it. It's clear Spike was riled by Birth of a Nation, as most normal people are, and chose to express his frustrations in his usual creative way -- making a movie. This is…
