Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on March 10, 2013

"Deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers." – Pope John Paul II With the appointment of a new pope, the beginning of Holy Week and President Obama's recent trip to the Holy Land, Christianity seems rather topical these days. So with that in mind, I wanted to look at one...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on January 10, 2013

When people speak of films made in the past, sometimes lamenting that “they don’t make them like they used to,” they are in many cases recalling not just the quality of these movies, but also the apparent effortlessness, the appealing nature of the sta   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2012

Despite having made such Hollywood films as Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960) — to name just a few of his many great movies — there are some who make the case that Alfred Hitchcock actually did his finest work in England, prior to his move across the...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2012

The 1950s, while having the apparent veneer of conformity and stability, was in actuality a rather tumultuous and polemical time, especially for the movies. And in no genre were there more attempts to combat the traditional with the progressive than in the Western. Sure, this was still the decad   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on June 10, 2012

Following the Ingmar Bergman double feature previously discussed, for this entry we'll stick with another combination of two movies, but this time with the theme of New York City in the 1970s. From 1969's Best Picture winning (and at the time X rated) Midnight Cowboy, through films like The Fren   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on June 10, 2012

“A sort of Adam from whom we are all descended.” – Federico Fellini on Charlie Chaplin With The Artist and Hugo both released last year, it appeared that there may be a sudden return of interest in cinema's silent era. But, now that the novelty of these new releases has...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on April 10, 2011

Released on a Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-Ray April 19 and currently available to watch instantly on Netflix, Kes (1969), directed by Ken Loach, is widely regarded as one of the best of all British films (ranked No. 7 by the British Film Institute). That praise could go even further...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on April 10, 2011

As reviewed on Examiner.com. Set for a DVD/Blu-ray release Tuesday, April 26, Blow Out, the 1981 film directed by Brian De Palma and starring John Travolta, is a spellbinding motion picture, one of the great filmmaker’s best.While the 1970s produced an array of superior American political th   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2010

In the period of Germany’s Weimar Republic, a unique and volatile pre- and post-war era within a window of less than 20 years, the German people were experiencing a torrent of new ideological, social, and political views. What was once normal was giving away to the new and unusual; what...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2010

When Lina Wertmüller, with Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties, 1975), and Roberto Benigni, with La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful, 1997), chose to look back at the era of World War II, its beginnings, its horrors, and its aftermath, they would do so, daringly, in comedic fashion. Through the   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2010

More than a decade removed from the rubble and ravaged streets of immediate post-war Italy, well into and beyond the reconstruction and stabilization of the years following, ushered in with a prevailing sense of modernity and a new sociocultural system of existence, and driven by a new desire for &#   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on July 10, 2010

The 2007 film Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is a dreamscape of images and memories told through the perspective of a man, Jean-Dominique Bauby, a stroke victim subsequently paralyzed who chooses not to roll over and die, but to live, and in doing so...   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

Should a film have a beginning, middle and end, it was once asked of Jean-Luc Godard. Yes, he famously responded, but not necessarily in that order (Sterritt, “Films” 20). Indeed, straying from formulaic narrative conventions has been a hallmark in the French filmmakers’ more than   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

Since he made his presence known on the television series Rawhide in the late 1960s, up through his last released directorial effort and last (for good?) starring role in 2008’s Gran Tornio, Clint Eastwood has firmly established himself as a major figure in American (and beyond) cinema and as   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

Aside from the technical and narrative skill he brought to Weimar-era German cinemas, director Fritz Lang also proved to be a master of extremely memorable characters. Whether such individuals were staples of mythical legend (Siegfried in Die Nibelungen), a symbol of modernity and the role of women   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

My reaction to D.W. Griffith’s masterwork Intolerance has always been one of wonder, and that feeling increases each time I see the picture and as I discover more about film history, Griffith himself, and the conditions of American filmmaking during this astounding period. Based on budget-to-p   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

"A man went looking for America, and couldn't find it anywhere..." With a blistering rock-and-roll soundtrack, a host of trippy cinematic techniques and dialogue that represented a very unique period in American history (“They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to t   read more

Studies in Cinema Posted by Jeremy Carr on February 10, 2010

Like most great cinematic movements, that of Italian Neorealism is not without its share of controversy and conflicting definitions and designations. Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 film Roma, città aperta stands as a preeminent example of the approach to filmmaking, and perhaps is its first true fi   read more