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Umberto D. 1952
Much has been said of a particular scene in Umberto D., where the maid, who knows that she will be evicted if the landlady finds out she is pregnant, in a scene that is totally unrelated to the rest of the story, acts out her morning routine. She wakes up and looks upwards from her bed at a cat prowling on the roof. She gets up and walks to the stove. She takes a match and strikes it against the…
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Diary of a Country Priest 1951
Diary of a Country Priest: Bresson’s Transitional Genesis:
Whilst Diary of a Country Priest is undoubtedly Robert Bresson’s first masterpiece, I think there has been a rather disingenuous attempt by some critics over the years to group it in with his other ten films as a part of his fully realised oeuvre. It is easy, due to the quality of this film, to want to categorise it as being ‘the first truly Bressonian film’; but in doing so, one must…
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The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928
I have always been of the very firm opinion that silent cinema and sound cinema are completely and fundamentally different. Of course, on an absolutely essential level they are both a series of photographs being shown in extremely quick succession, but their aesthetic disparity is massive. Silent cinema in particular relied on expressiveness to really reach its potential. Nobody remembers the German Kammerspiel films or all those benign melodramas of the 20s (even Griffith’s, who, I would imagine very few…
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Raging Bull 1980
I cried at the opening shot. The greatest exploration of pride in the history of art. It was almost sickening watching this film. It was sickening because I saw myself reflected in Jake. I saw myself reflected in his little envious glances, or in his corrective expressions, hiding linings of pain and pride and jealousy and presumptuousness. When Mascagni’s Intermezzo suddenly blared from the screen, those harsh strings which play as if they collect all of the pain in the…
