Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)

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Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)



Faces belie words;
looks undermine gestures;
such a dance ensues
between lovers and strangers
within a block of
crowded tenements.

Penultimately,
sophisticated sound
ricochets like bullets

off an even more
sophisticated silence;
classy shadows

beguile the eye, as
adult urchins wrestle
within rolling puffs

of smoke
obscuring the gaze--
first artfully,

then almost completely;
as the sound-scuffle plays
against a black screen, you

wait

in darkness

for an ending

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Opening scene of the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4wUmBM6gk&feature=PlayList&p=757ADA8136927443&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=94

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

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On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, Starring George Lazenby and Diana Rigg)


Thanks to barely 1970
space-age technology
the new actor playing 007
gets the ultimate
Bond Gadget:

A fully functional heart.

Now, a heart is a thing of wonder
given all the time in the world
to romp with the Goddess Diana

but turns into a gory story
when suddenly
Unpeeled

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Code 46 (2003)

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Code 46 (2003)

The middle-aged married man
cheating with the subversive waif
knows the system well, and expects
to be caught.

He lives in a bubble of time
soon to be smoothed out
and forgotten.

The waif says, "You have a kid?
...I bet he is special.
...Everybody's children are so special--
it makes you wonder where all the ordinary grown-ups come from."

In this future that looks almost like now
you can have
an ordinary life

with sanitized memories and desires
safely inside the Sphinx.

Or, make your own story, living dangerously
outside it. Both are valid choices
if a state-induced virus
can correct antisocial behaviour.

What is most interesting in this picture
is what is absent:

Prison.

Punishment.

In a society without brutality
how do you define violence?

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clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l6Eo1nGsXI

The Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen)

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The Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968)


The blackest blacks you've ever seen
float up to the surface of the screen

and swim there, rippling the membrane
between reality and gothic beauty

then dart out dagger-like from the movie
across the space you thought was safe

and bat-like
bite into you

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clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq7OM-wi1AY&feature=related