View image View image Shane Carruth's ingenious "Primer" (2004) offers a textbook example, if you will, of a "What are we looking at?" opening shot. Linear and rectangular or trapezoidal patterns of light dot the dark screen. Then the irregular,…
View image View image View image From John Hartl, film critic for MSNBC, Seattle, WA: “Nights of Cabiria��? (1957) The opening scene in Federico Fellini’s greatest film presents a pattern that will be repeated in the story of Cabiria, a…
President Bush was in Chicago Thursday for his 60th birthday, having dinner with Mayor Daley. When asked by reporters what he wanted for his birthday he replied, "I've got a lot of birthday wishes. I hope the troops are safe.…
Above: That gritty Hollywood literalism and/or naturalism: "Off-putting to the contemporary sensibility." I was wrong. Last night, just before going to bed, I read Stephen Metcalf's "Dilettante" column, "The Worst Best Movie: Why on earth did 'The Searchers' get canonized?".…
"What an asshole." I don't read Slate much anymore since David Edelstein, a real film critic, departed for New York Magazine, and the once-sentient Christopher Hitchens ceased being capable of writing about anything but his own old opinions, circa 2002…
"... the evil galactic warlord who made all of this possible." "Trapped in the Closet" -- the infamous 2005 "South Park" episode that miraculously combined elements of Scientology, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Second Coming, L. Ron Hubbard,…
View image View image View image From Ali Arikan, Istanbul, Turkey: The first shot of "Withnail and I" is deceptive in its simplicity. As the camera opens on the eponymous "I" of the title, obviously depressed and downtrodden, we see…
View image: To sleep, perchance to dream... View image: The dreamer awakes. View image: Meanwhile, on the other side of the world... (From the opening shot of "Lost in Translation.") Does this shot look uncannily familiar? A man asleep, or…
View image: The kind of thing that can ruin a childhood. From Robert Daniel, Birmingham, AL: "Deep Red" (Dario Argento, 1975): The scene opens a floor-level shot. We hear a stabbing sound and a loud scream. The knife falls in…
From John Hopkins, San Diego, CA:
Great Movies