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

Catch-22 (1970)

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Catch-22 (1970)


This version should be called "Catch-2:15"--
the only time of day with light worth filming
according to cinematographer David Watkin.

Mike Nichols' adaption is fairly true to the book
and adds a coherent look,
costly and never to be repeated;

real planes, real stone buildings, real explosions,
real Orson Welles flown in
and real actors who spent most of their time
waiting, in boredom and confusion

for the hands of the clock and the sun in the sky
to reach up just so high



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L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, and Il Grido

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L'Avventura (1960) and L'Eclisse (1962)


These movies are about intersections.

Some intersections have people
shuffling through, exuding passion, disappointment, confusion or
just sitting in a cafe, doodling, taking up space

some intersections are "empty."

The camera follows
some people, not others.
The camera lingers
on a corner after a "scene" is over.

What are we looking at?
What do we WANT
the camera to do?

To go there, or...
--there...or--

anywhere!-- but here.



What if the camera doesn't comply?


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Il Grido (1957)


This is a film about dislocation.


Woman rejects man.

Man rejects town.

Man, brooding, is handsome, and useless.

Other women want to use him.

Man runs from them.

Rootless man

runs from self.

Life is ended.

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Repeat story, for several generations.

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Kiss Me Deadly

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KISS ME DEADLY (1955)


In 1955, fully aware classic film noir
fucks itself for the final time.

In the first scene a woman running barefoot, crying
gasping for air contains the key, literally,
as the credits roll up from the wrong end of the screen.

Soon she is tortured, she screams and screams
but we see
only her knees.

Sound betrays image, the image
of the big wisecracking man is shorn and shorn again
by Woman--who sweats, lies, dances, opines--
Woman is more than hole

in this film it's the men that are only parts
lusting after the "great whatsit"
a/k/a Pandora's box. When it's opened--

hide in the ocean!--
from the apocryphal climax of so much sleazy
over-the-top bizarre dreaminess.

Perhaps Hammer really died in the opening sequence?

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