Bossche, David Vanden. "Brian De Palma's Steadicam and the Definition of Genre." Photogénie (May 23, 2018)
Buchanan, Pat, et al. "The Beginning of Now." This American Life #615 (April 28, 2017) ["Before Donald Trump started his presidential campaign in 2015, there was a congressional race that redefined what was possible in American politics. Steve Bannon and Breitbart News got involved in that race early, just like they later got deeply involved in Donald Trump's race. On this week’s show: What happened in that campaign, what it made it work, and how we got to now."]
Charman, Helen. "'Learn to Love Your Claustrophobia': The False Feminism of Jason Reitman's Tully." Another Gaze (May 23, 2018)
Gericke, Janine. "Frustratingly Real: Disobedience." Film International (May 23, 2018)
Dykes, Camera, Action! Seed & Spark Video from Caroline Berler on Vimeo.
Glover, Cameron. "Dykes, Camera, Action Documentary Honors The History Of Lesbian Cinema." Logo (May 2018)
Holt-Giménez, Eric. "A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism." The Distillery (Season 1 - ND) ["People are not going hungry because of food scarcity but because of inequality. Introducing global food systems and how they impact farmers and consumers, Eric Holt-Giménez unpacks the intersections of class, gender, and race from the unique vantage point of the food economy."]
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Laughing During Horror Movies." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 3, 2017) ["Have you ever heard inappropriate laughter during a horror movie? For that matter, are you the guilty party? Join Robert and Christian as they explore our curious reactions to frightful cinema and how horror and comedy converge in the human mind."]
John Dewey: Philosophy/Psychology/Education Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Pajkovic, Niko. "Mother! (2017)." Film Matters (May 14, 2018)
Zoellner, Tom. "The Serial Killer as a Marketing Genius." Los Angeles Review of Books (May 21, 2018)
Monday, May 28, 2018
John Dewey: Philosophy/Psychology/Education
The serious threat to our democracy is not the existence of foreign totalitarian states. It is the existence within our own personal attitudes and within our own institutions of conditions which have given a victory to external authority, discipline, uniformity and dependence on The Leader in foreign countries. The Battlefield is also accordingly here - within ourselves and our institutions. - John Dewey (quoted in Fromm, Erich. Escape to Freedom. Open Road Media, 2013: 19-20.)
Biographies:
Wikipedia: John Dewey
John Dewey, American Pragmatist
Works by and about John Dewey:
Dewey, John. "My Pedagogic Creed." Infed (First published in The School Journal, Volume LIV, Number 3 [January 16, 1897], pages 77-80.)
---. "On Democracy." (Excerpted from "Democracy and Educational Administration," School and Society 45 (April 3, 1937): 457-67.)
Festenstein, Matthew. "Dewey's Political Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Revised February 6, 2014)
Field, Richard. "John Dewey (1859 - 1952)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ND)
Hansen, David T. "Introduction: Reading Democracy and Education." Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2006: 1-22.
Hickman, Larry A. "Dewey, Democracy and Global Citizenship." Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue (June 1, 2002)
---. "Dewey's Lasting Legacy." Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue (2002)
London, Scott. "Organic Democracy: The Political Philosophy of John Dewey." (2018)
Micheletti, Gabrielle. "John Dewey and the Ethics of Democracy." Inquiries 3.3 (2011)
Robins, Alex. " Theory in Studio: John Dewey, Champion of Art as Experience." Burnaway (January 11, 2012)
Smith, Mark K. "John Dewey on Education and Experience." Infed (May 8, 1997)
Tampio, Nicholas. "In Praise of Dewey." Aeon (July 28, 2016) ["He knew how to protect democracy – not by rote and rules but by growing independent-minded kids. Let us not forget it"]
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 27, 2018
Day, Meagan. "The Feeble Strength of One." Jacobin (May 25, 2018) ["The Supreme Court has handed bosses a license to divide workers and break the law."]
El Goro. "Child's Play (1988) and The Exorcist III (1990)." Talk Without Rhythm (October 29, 2017)
Fettig, Amy and Chase Strangio. "The Trump Administration Is Attacking Trans People in Federal Prison." Speak Freely (May 25, 2018)
Kelley, Robin D.G. "Black Study, Black Struggle." Boston Review (March 7, 2016)
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Timothy Leary, Part 1: The Science of LSD." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 19, 2017) ["Idolized by some and reviled by others, Timothy Leary remains an icon of 1960s counterculture and psychedelic self-exploration. But who was this rebel, psychologist and celebrity? What did he reveal about LSD’s power and potential? Join Robert and Christian for a special two-part look at the man, the time and the drug he championed. Turn on, tune in, drop out..."]
---. "Timothy Leary, Part 2: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 23, 2017)
Purnell, Derecka. "Radical Political Action." Boston Review (March 7, 2016) ["In the Black Study, Black Struggle forum, Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that. At Harvard Law School, a group called Reclaim Harvard Law has occupied one of the school's lounges and is holding weekly political education sessions there. Purnell shared with us her list of the texts that have been circulating in the group. It reveals an investment in liberation from not only racial oppression, but from all forms of oppression, including sexual and financial. This is informed by a commitment to "intersectionality," Kimberlé Crenshaw's insight that various forms of oppression are entangled and amplify one another, and thus must be fought in concert. We present this list, in the form it was presented to us, as the current pulse of the movement and a testament to its members' brilliance."]
Ruskin, Zack. "How John Cameron Mitchell and Neil Gaiman Infused Their Sci-Fi Movie with a Punk Spirit." Andy Warhol's Interview (May 15, 2018)
El Goro. "Child's Play (1988) and The Exorcist III (1990)." Talk Without Rhythm (October 29, 2017)
Fettig, Amy and Chase Strangio. "The Trump Administration Is Attacking Trans People in Federal Prison." Speak Freely (May 25, 2018)
Kelley, Robin D.G. "Black Study, Black Struggle." Boston Review (March 7, 2016)
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Timothy Leary, Part 1: The Science of LSD." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 19, 2017) ["Idolized by some and reviled by others, Timothy Leary remains an icon of 1960s counterculture and psychedelic self-exploration. But who was this rebel, psychologist and celebrity? What did he reveal about LSD’s power and potential? Join Robert and Christian for a special two-part look at the man, the time and the drug he championed. Turn on, tune in, drop out..."]
---. "Timothy Leary, Part 2: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 23, 2017)
Purnell, Derecka. "Radical Political Action." Boston Review (March 7, 2016) ["In the Black Study, Black Struggle forum, Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that. At Harvard Law School, a group called Reclaim Harvard Law has occupied one of the school's lounges and is holding weekly political education sessions there. Purnell shared with us her list of the texts that have been circulating in the group. It reveals an investment in liberation from not only racial oppression, but from all forms of oppression, including sexual and financial. This is informed by a commitment to "intersectionality," Kimberlé Crenshaw's insight that various forms of oppression are entangled and amplify one another, and thus must be fought in concert. We present this list, in the form it was presented to us, as the current pulse of the movement and a testament to its members' brilliance."]
Ruskin, Zack. "How John Cameron Mitchell and Neil Gaiman Infused Their Sci-Fi Movie with a Punk Spirit." Andy Warhol's Interview (May 15, 2018)
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 26, 2018
Biller, Anna. "Let's Stop Calling Movies Feminist." Anna's Blog (February 5, 2018)
"Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats) Talks with Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here)." Talkhouse (April 12, 2018) ["Eliza Hittman – the writer-director of It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats – chats with one of the great living filmmakers (and one of Hittman’s personal heroes), Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay. The two talk about Ramsay’s latest film, You Were Never Really Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, which is in theaters now, touching on such topics as the adaptation process, tackling violent subject matter, making a thriller for the first time, staying open to new ideas during all phases of the creative process, balancing life and work, and much more besides. "]
Greven, David. "Unlovely Spectacle: D.A. Miller on Call Me By Your Name." Film International (March 13, 2018)
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 1." Talkhouse (April 17, 2018) ["In the first part of their enthralling two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Podcast, the pair discuss winning big at the Oscars, surviving award season, how to stay a scrapper despite success, del Toro’s apprenticeship under makeup legend Dick Smith, the remarkable story of Friedkin and the Pazuzu statue in The Exorcist, the plagiarism controversy surrounding The Shape of Water, and much more."]
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 2." Talkhouse (April 19, 2018) ["Here, the longtime friends discuss the genesis of and remarkable stories surrounding Friedkin’s compelling new documentary about the Vatican’s exorcist,The Devil and Father Amorth. In the process, they tackle some of the most substantial topics imaginable, including: Christ, Hitler, religion, evil, reason vs. emotion, empathy vs. fear, free will, the impending apocalypse — and how filmmakers can make a difference in a world on the brink."]
Hobbs, Thomas. "Beats, Rhymes and Cinema: Menace II Society." Talkhouse (April 7, 2018) ["Screenwriter Tyger Williams reflects on the legacy of the Hughes Brothers’ controversial crime saga, which turns 25 this year."]
Jeremy Scahill: Investigative Journalist/Editor Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
"Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats) Talks with Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here)." Talkhouse (April 12, 2018) ["Eliza Hittman – the writer-director of It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats – chats with one of the great living filmmakers (and one of Hittman’s personal heroes), Scottish writer-director Lynne Ramsay. The two talk about Ramsay’s latest film, You Were Never Really Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, which is in theaters now, touching on such topics as the adaptation process, tackling violent subject matter, making a thriller for the first time, staying open to new ideas during all phases of the creative process, balancing life and work, and much more besides. "]
Greven, David. "Unlovely Spectacle: D.A. Miller on Call Me By Your Name." Film International (March 13, 2018)
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 1." Talkhouse (April 17, 2018) ["In the first part of their enthralling two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Podcast, the pair discuss winning big at the Oscars, surviving award season, how to stay a scrapper despite success, del Toro’s apprenticeship under makeup legend Dick Smith, the remarkable story of Friedkin and the Pazuzu statue in The Exorcist, the plagiarism controversy surrounding The Shape of Water, and much more."]
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 2." Talkhouse (April 19, 2018) ["Here, the longtime friends discuss the genesis of and remarkable stories surrounding Friedkin’s compelling new documentary about the Vatican’s exorcist,The Devil and Father Amorth. In the process, they tackle some of the most substantial topics imaginable, including: Christ, Hitler, religion, evil, reason vs. emotion, empathy vs. fear, free will, the impending apocalypse — and how filmmakers can make a difference in a world on the brink."]
Hobbs, Thomas. "Beats, Rhymes and Cinema: Menace II Society." Talkhouse (April 7, 2018) ["Screenwriter Tyger Williams reflects on the legacy of the Hughes Brothers’ controversial crime saga, which turns 25 this year."]
Jeremy Scahill: Investigative Journalist/Editor Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Jeremy Scahill (Journalism/Peace & Conflict)
Biographies/Archives on/for Jeremy Scahill:
Wikipedia: Jeremy Scahill
The Intercept: Jeremy Scahill
Democracy Now: Jeremy Scahill
The Nation: Jeremy Scahill
Twitter: Jeremy Scahill
Resources by/about/featuring Jeremy Scahill:
Balto, Simon and Nick Estes. "Confederacy Inc.: Donald Trump, Racist Police, and the Whitewashing of History." Intercepted (July 1, 2020) ["As cases of Covid-19 skyrocket across the U.S. — particularly in states that basked in the glory of the Trump administration’s ignorance and anti-science policies — Trump is passionately focused on defending the legacy of the Confederacy and white supremacist monuments. Native American historian Nick Estes explains the crimes against Indigenous people committed by the four presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore and describes the story of the Native tribes displaced from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police brutality systemic racism continue across the U.S. as calls to defund the police intensify. University of Iowa historian Simon Balto, author of the new book “Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power,” lays out the origins of the Chicago Police Department as a moralistic enforcement agency in the late 1800s and its transformation into a militarized terror force deployed to systemically and violently control Black people in Chicago, while simultaneously crushing movements for workers’ rights, tenant rights, and basic human rights."]
Engelhardt, Tom. "The Long March of Jeremy Scahill's 'Dirty Wars'." The Nation (April 23, 2013)
Gosztola, Kevin. "Through Bradley Manning, Jeremy Scahill Learned Blackwater’s Erik Prince Was Going to United Arab Emirates." Firedoglake (April 24, 2013)
Greenwald, Glenn and Jeremy Scahill. "Death By Metadata: Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Reveal NSA Role in Assassinations Overseas." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
---. "Defying Threats to Journalism, Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Launch New Venture, The Intercept." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
---. "Report: Obama Administration Considers Assassinating Another American Overseas." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
Klein, Naomi and Jeremy Scahill. "Discuss Coronavirus, the Election, and Solidarity in the Midst of a Pandemic." Intercepted (March 17, 2020)
Maruf, Harun, et al. "American Misdirection: Militarism and Capitalism Reign as Spotlight Stays on Russia Conspiracy." Intercepted (March 6, 2019) ["Many Democrats are starting to grapple with the possibility that the special counsel’s Russia investigation may not back up their over-arching allegation that Trump conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 elections. Journalist and Russiagate critic Aaron Maté presents his dissenting analysis, what he believes is behind the investigation, and how the scandal has distracted from other urgent issues. We hear a new speech from professor Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.”As the Trump administration intensifies its air war in Somalia, journalist Harun Maruf, co-author of “Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda’s Most Powerful Ally,” discusses the war in Somalia and the seldom-mentioned history of how, in 2006, the George W. Bush administration helped overthrow the only force that had brought peace to Somalia since the early 1990s. Those actions helped give rise to al-Shabab."]
Meek, James. "Hooyah: Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill." London Review of Books 24.15 (August 2, 2007)
Moss, Stephen. "Jeremy Scahill: the man exposing the US Dirty War." The Guardian (November 24, 2013)
Muscati, Samar and Jeremy Scahill. "Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” in the UAE." Democracy Now (May 18, 2011)
Ortiz, Roxanne Dunbar, et al. "Taking the first steps of American imperialism (Native Peoples Series Part 3)." Best of the Left #1252 (February 26, 2019) ["Today we take a look at the process of systematic, government-sponsored genocide against the native peoples of North America that kicked off the wealth-accumulating, territory-expanding American empire we know and love today."]
Robinson, Jennifer. "Julian Assange’s Attorney Decries Espionage Charges as 'Grave Threat to Press Freedom.'" Democracy Now (May 24, 2019) ["In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department has indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 17 charges of violating the Espionage Act for his role in publishing U.S. classified military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The documents were leaked by U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The Espionage Act of 1917 has never been used to prosecute a journalist or media outlet. The new charges come just over a month after British police forcibly removed Assange from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he took asylum in 2012. Initially the Trump administration indicted Assange on a single count of helping Manning hack a government computer, but Assange faces up to 170 additional years in prison under the new charges—10 years for each count of violating the Espionage Act. We speak with Jennifer Robinson, an attorney for Julian Assange. “It is a grave threat to press freedom and should be cause for concern for journalists and publishers everywhere,” Robinson says." Part two: "Daniel Ellsberg: Espionage Charges Against Assange Are Most Significant Attack on Press in Decades." Part three: "Jeremy Scahill: New Indictment of Assange Is Part of a Broader War on Journalism & Whistleblowers." Part four: "Assange Is Indicted for Exposing War Crimes While Trump Considers Pardons for War Criminals."]
Rowley, Richard and Jeremy Scahill. "Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley’s New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare." Democracy Now (January 22, 2013)
---. "America's Dangerous Game: This film examines the covert war in Yemen and asks if the US is creating more enemies than it can capture or kill." People and Power (March 8, 2012)
Scahill, Jeremy. "As U.S. Escalates Pakistan Drone Strikes, Expansive "Kill List" Stirs Fears of Worse Civilian Toll." Democracy Now (June 5, 2012)
---. "Blacklisted Academic Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, 'The World's Largest Concentration Camp.'" The Intercept (May 20, 2018)
---. "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre." Democracy Now (October 23, 2014)
---. "Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder." The Nation (April 4, 2009)
---. "'Blackwatergate'–Private Military Firm in Firestorm of Controversy over Involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany." Democracy Now (January 8, 2010)
---. "Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan: Jeremy Scahill Reveals Private Military Firm Operating in Pakistan under Covert Assassination and Kidnapping Program." Democracy Now (November 24, 2009)
---. "The Dangerous US Game in Yemen." The Nation (April 18, 2011)
---. "End of Iraq Combat Operations or Beginning of Downsized, Rebranded Occupation Relying Heavily on Private Military Contractors?" Democracy Now (August 3, 2010)
---. "Jeremy Scahill TELLS ALL: BlackWater, Israel, Cheney's, 2024 Election." Breaking Points (October 11, 2024) ["Ryan and Emily sit down with Dropsite News' Jeremy Scahill to talk about Jeremy's career, interviewing Hamas, Edward Snowden, Blackwater and more!"]
---. "Killing Americans: On Obama Admin’s Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes." Democracy Now (May 23, 2013)
---. "Obama Paved Way for Haspel to Head CIA by Failing to Hold Torturers Accountable." Democracy Now (May 10, 2018) ["On Capitol Hill Wednesday, President Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, announced she would not restart the CIA’s interrogation program. But she repeatedly refused to call the CIA’s post-9/11 treatment of prisoners “torture,” and declined to state whether she believes torture is immoral. Haspel’s comments came in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, as she made her case to become the first woman to head the agency. Haspel is a 33-year CIA veteran who was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand in 2002, where one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways. Haspel also oversaw the destruction of videotapes showing torture at the black site. At least two Republican senators have come out against her—Rand Paul and John McCain, who said her “role in overseeing the use of torture is disturbing & her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” But Haspel may still be confirmed with the help of Democratic lawmakers. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already announced he will back Haspel. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept and host of the weekly podcast “Intercepted.”"]
---. "On the U.S.-Backed Atrocities in Yemen." The Intercept (November 27, 2017)
---. "Secret Erik Prince Tape Exposed." The Nation (May 3, 2010)
---. "Trump Has Incited White Supremacists & Emboldened Police to Act Outside the Law." Democracy Now (October 19, 2020) ["As the 2020 presidential campaign enters its final two weeks, we look at the past four years of the Trump presidency with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept. His podcast “Intercepted” has just released the fourth chapter in a seven-part audio documentary titled “American Mythology,” which critically examines the Trump presidency and places it within a larger historical context. Scahill says Trump has empowered white supremacist vigilantes and given permission to law enforcement to act extrajudicially to enforce a racist status quo, but he cautions that “Donald Trump is not an aberration of U.S. history or some anomaly, but he’s a very overt representation of many of the absolute most violent, destructive, racist, xenophobic trends in U.S. history.”"]
Wikipedia: Jeremy Scahill
The Intercept: Jeremy Scahill
Democracy Now: Jeremy Scahill
The Nation: Jeremy Scahill
Twitter: Jeremy Scahill
Resources by/about/featuring Jeremy Scahill:
Balto, Simon and Nick Estes. "Confederacy Inc.: Donald Trump, Racist Police, and the Whitewashing of History." Intercepted (July 1, 2020) ["As cases of Covid-19 skyrocket across the U.S. — particularly in states that basked in the glory of the Trump administration’s ignorance and anti-science policies — Trump is passionately focused on defending the legacy of the Confederacy and white supremacist monuments. Native American historian Nick Estes explains the crimes against Indigenous people committed by the four presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore and describes the story of the Native tribes displaced from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police brutality systemic racism continue across the U.S. as calls to defund the police intensify. University of Iowa historian Simon Balto, author of the new book “Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power,” lays out the origins of the Chicago Police Department as a moralistic enforcement agency in the late 1800s and its transformation into a militarized terror force deployed to systemically and violently control Black people in Chicago, while simultaneously crushing movements for workers’ rights, tenant rights, and basic human rights."]
Engelhardt, Tom. "The Long March of Jeremy Scahill's 'Dirty Wars'." The Nation (April 23, 2013)
Gosztola, Kevin. "Through Bradley Manning, Jeremy Scahill Learned Blackwater’s Erik Prince Was Going to United Arab Emirates." Firedoglake (April 24, 2013)
Greenwald, Glenn and Jeremy Scahill. "Death By Metadata: Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Reveal NSA Role in Assassinations Overseas." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
---. "Defying Threats to Journalism, Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Launch New Venture, The Intercept." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
---. "Report: Obama Administration Considers Assassinating Another American Overseas." Democracy Now (February 10, 2014)
Klein, Naomi and Jeremy Scahill. "Discuss Coronavirus, the Election, and Solidarity in the Midst of a Pandemic." Intercepted (March 17, 2020)
Maruf, Harun, et al. "American Misdirection: Militarism and Capitalism Reign as Spotlight Stays on Russia Conspiracy." Intercepted (March 6, 2019) ["Many Democrats are starting to grapple with the possibility that the special counsel’s Russia investigation may not back up their over-arching allegation that Trump conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 elections. Journalist and Russiagate critic Aaron Maté presents his dissenting analysis, what he believes is behind the investigation, and how the scandal has distracted from other urgent issues. We hear a new speech from professor Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.”As the Trump administration intensifies its air war in Somalia, journalist Harun Maruf, co-author of “Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda’s Most Powerful Ally,” discusses the war in Somalia and the seldom-mentioned history of how, in 2006, the George W. Bush administration helped overthrow the only force that had brought peace to Somalia since the early 1990s. Those actions helped give rise to al-Shabab."]
Meek, James. "Hooyah: Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill." London Review of Books 24.15 (August 2, 2007)
Moss, Stephen. "Jeremy Scahill: the man exposing the US Dirty War." The Guardian (November 24, 2013)
Muscati, Samar and Jeremy Scahill. "Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” in the UAE." Democracy Now (May 18, 2011)
Ortiz, Roxanne Dunbar, et al. "Taking the first steps of American imperialism (Native Peoples Series Part 3)." Best of the Left #1252 (February 26, 2019) ["Today we take a look at the process of systematic, government-sponsored genocide against the native peoples of North America that kicked off the wealth-accumulating, territory-expanding American empire we know and love today."]
Robinson, Jennifer. "Julian Assange’s Attorney Decries Espionage Charges as 'Grave Threat to Press Freedom.'" Democracy Now (May 24, 2019) ["In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department has indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 17 charges of violating the Espionage Act for his role in publishing U.S. classified military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The documents were leaked by U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The Espionage Act of 1917 has never been used to prosecute a journalist or media outlet. The new charges come just over a month after British police forcibly removed Assange from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he took asylum in 2012. Initially the Trump administration indicted Assange on a single count of helping Manning hack a government computer, but Assange faces up to 170 additional years in prison under the new charges—10 years for each count of violating the Espionage Act. We speak with Jennifer Robinson, an attorney for Julian Assange. “It is a grave threat to press freedom and should be cause for concern for journalists and publishers everywhere,” Robinson says." Part two: "Daniel Ellsberg: Espionage Charges Against Assange Are Most Significant Attack on Press in Decades." Part three: "Jeremy Scahill: New Indictment of Assange Is Part of a Broader War on Journalism & Whistleblowers." Part four: "Assange Is Indicted for Exposing War Crimes While Trump Considers Pardons for War Criminals."]
---. "America's Dangerous Game: This film examines the covert war in Yemen and asks if the US is creating more enemies than it can capture or kill." People and Power (March 8, 2012)
Scahill, Jeremy. "As U.S. Escalates Pakistan Drone Strikes, Expansive "Kill List" Stirs Fears of Worse Civilian Toll." Democracy Now (June 5, 2012)
---. "Blacklisted Academic Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, 'The World's Largest Concentration Camp.'" The Intercept (May 20, 2018)
---. "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre." Democracy Now (October 23, 2014)
---. "Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder." The Nation (April 4, 2009)
---. "'Blackwatergate'–Private Military Firm in Firestorm of Controversy over Involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany." Democracy Now (January 8, 2010)
---. "Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan: Jeremy Scahill Reveals Private Military Firm Operating in Pakistan under Covert Assassination and Kidnapping Program." Democracy Now (November 24, 2009)
---. "The Dangerous US Game in Yemen." The Nation (April 18, 2011)
---. "End of Iraq Combat Operations or Beginning of Downsized, Rebranded Occupation Relying Heavily on Private Military Contractors?" Democracy Now (August 3, 2010)
---. "Jeremy Scahill TELLS ALL: BlackWater, Israel, Cheney's, 2024 Election." Breaking Points (October 11, 2024) ["Ryan and Emily sit down with Dropsite News' Jeremy Scahill to talk about Jeremy's career, interviewing Hamas, Edward Snowden, Blackwater and more!"]
---. "Killing Americans: On Obama Admin’s Admission 4 U.S. Citizens Died in Drone Strikes." Democracy Now (May 23, 2013)
---. "Obama Paved Way for Haspel to Head CIA by Failing to Hold Torturers Accountable." Democracy Now (May 10, 2018) ["On Capitol Hill Wednesday, President Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, announced she would not restart the CIA’s interrogation program. But she repeatedly refused to call the CIA’s post-9/11 treatment of prisoners “torture,” and declined to state whether she believes torture is immoral. Haspel’s comments came in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, as she made her case to become the first woman to head the agency. Haspel is a 33-year CIA veteran who was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand in 2002, where one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways. Haspel also oversaw the destruction of videotapes showing torture at the black site. At least two Republican senators have come out against her—Rand Paul and John McCain, who said her “role in overseeing the use of torture is disturbing & her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” But Haspel may still be confirmed with the help of Democratic lawmakers. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already announced he will back Haspel. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept and host of the weekly podcast “Intercepted.”"]
---. "On the U.S.-Backed Atrocities in Yemen." The Intercept (November 27, 2017)
---. "Secret Erik Prince Tape Exposed." The Nation (May 3, 2010)
---. "Trump Has Incited White Supremacists & Emboldened Police to Act Outside the Law." Democracy Now (October 19, 2020) ["As the 2020 presidential campaign enters its final two weeks, we look at the past four years of the Trump presidency with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept. His podcast “Intercepted” has just released the fourth chapter in a seven-part audio documentary titled “American Mythology,” which critically examines the Trump presidency and places it within a larger historical context. Scahill says Trump has empowered white supremacist vigilantes and given permission to law enforcement to act extrajudicially to enforce a racist status quo, but he cautions that “Donald Trump is not an aberration of U.S. history or some anomaly, but he’s a very overt representation of many of the absolute most violent, destructive, racist, xenophobic trends in U.S. history.”"]
---. "Trump’s 'Homicidal' Pandemic Response & What’s at Stake in November Election." Democracy Now (October 19, 2020) ["As President Trump campaigns in swing states that are also coronavirus hot spots, The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill argues he is directly responsible for the poor U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 220,000 people in the country so far and sickened millions. “I don’t know how else to describe what Trump has done except homicidal,” says Scahill, host of a new seven-part audio series that examines the Trump era."]
---. "'Trump Is Not the Root of the Problem, He Is a Product of American Imperial History.'" Democracy Now (October 19, 2020) ["Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 with a mixed message of attacking the legacy of the Iraq War and U.S. military adventurism, while simultaneously pledging to commit war crimes and promote imperialism. As we look back at Trump’s record, Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept, says his flouting of international norms and bullying of other countries is in keeping with how U.S. presidents have long behaved. “Donald Trump is not the root of the problem. Donald Trump is a product of American imperial history,” Scahill notes."]
---. "Trump’s Xenophobia Is Horrific, But U.S. Immigration Policy Has Always Been Racist." Democracy Now (October 19, 2020) ["In Part 2 of our discussion of the Trump era with The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill about his new seven-part audio documentary “American Mythology,” he examines how Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies have been a “methodical, surgical operation” to make life miserable for both current and prospective immigrants, including asylum seekers fleeing violence. He also notes that while Trump’s policies have been particularly vicious, “this country has had a racist immigration policy for a very long time, and it’s bipartisan.”"]
---. "Video: A Brief History of U.S. Intervention in Iraq Over the Past Half Century." The Intercept (April 9, 2018)
---. "Washington War in Yemen Backfires." The Nation (February 15, 2012)
["How US counterterrorism operations ignited an Islamist uprising."]
---. "The World Is a Battlefield: "Dirty Wars" and Obama’s Expanding Drone Attacks." Democracy Now (April 24, 2013)
Scahill, Jeremy and Samer Muscati. "On Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” in the UAE." Democracy Now (May 18, 2011)
Scahill, Jeremy, et al. "Very Bad Men: Trump, the Saudi Crown Prince, Sexual Assaulters, and Robert Mugabe." Intercepted (November 29, 2017) ["THE UNCONSCIONABLE GENOCIDAL destruction of Yemen is continuing unabated. This week on Intercepted: Sen. Chris Murphy blasts the U.S. government for its support of Saudi Arabia and lays out his fight to end the carnage in Yemen. Jeremy tears apart Thomas Friedman’s gross love letter to the Saudi crown prince and talks about the bi-partisan war against journalism from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. As more women come forward to name their sexual assaulters and harassers, Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed and BuzzFeed’s Katie Baker analyze this unprecedented moment. Robert Mugabe was removed in a military coup, but his successor is a brutal thug from the same party. We get analysis from Harare, Zimbabwe, about why the U.S. and Britain supported Mugabe’s repressive regime, who is in control now, and what the future holds in this mineral rich country."]
Singh, Nikhil Pal, with Jeremy Scahill. "Talk and Conversation." Lannan Foundation (September 26, 2018) ["Nikhil Pal Singh is an associate professor of social and cultural analysis and history at New York University and the founding faculty director of the NYU Prison Education Program. He is the author of Race and America’s Long War (2017), in which, historian Robin Kelley argues, “Singh obliterates any myth of American peace, revealing instead that the thread tying America’s past and present is long and continuous war—”hot, vicious, global, and racial.” Singh’s work helps us understand the historical sweep of racist ideology that brought us to the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and shows the connection between the election and US military defeats abroad. He writes, 'Marred by military atrocities, torture scandals, fiscal waste, toxic exposure, popular opposition, and public disgust, the US invasion of Iraq induced a regional death spiral and inspired new terrorist networks of the kind that the war was ostensibly fought to vanquish.'"]
---. "Video: A Brief History of U.S. Intervention in Iraq Over the Past Half Century." The Intercept (April 9, 2018)
---. "Washington War in Yemen Backfires." The Nation (February 15, 2012)
["How US counterterrorism operations ignited an Islamist uprising."]
---. "The World Is a Battlefield: "Dirty Wars" and Obama’s Expanding Drone Attacks." Democracy Now (April 24, 2013)
Scahill, Jeremy and Samer Muscati. "On Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Private Army of “Christian Crusaders” in the UAE." Democracy Now (May 18, 2011)
Scahill, Jeremy, et al. "Very Bad Men: Trump, the Saudi Crown Prince, Sexual Assaulters, and Robert Mugabe." Intercepted (November 29, 2017) ["THE UNCONSCIONABLE GENOCIDAL destruction of Yemen is continuing unabated. This week on Intercepted: Sen. Chris Murphy blasts the U.S. government for its support of Saudi Arabia and lays out his fight to end the carnage in Yemen. Jeremy tears apart Thomas Friedman’s gross love letter to the Saudi crown prince and talks about the bi-partisan war against journalism from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. As more women come forward to name their sexual assaulters and harassers, Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed and BuzzFeed’s Katie Baker analyze this unprecedented moment. Robert Mugabe was removed in a military coup, but his successor is a brutal thug from the same party. We get analysis from Harare, Zimbabwe, about why the U.S. and Britain supported Mugabe’s repressive regime, who is in control now, and what the future holds in this mineral rich country."]
Singh, Nikhil Pal, with Jeremy Scahill. "Talk and Conversation." Lannan Foundation (September 26, 2018) ["Nikhil Pal Singh is an associate professor of social and cultural analysis and history at New York University and the founding faculty director of the NYU Prison Education Program. He is the author of Race and America’s Long War (2017), in which, historian Robin Kelley argues, “Singh obliterates any myth of American peace, revealing instead that the thread tying America’s past and present is long and continuous war—”hot, vicious, global, and racial.” Singh’s work helps us understand the historical sweep of racist ideology that brought us to the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and shows the connection between the election and US military defeats abroad. He writes, 'Marred by military atrocities, torture scandals, fiscal waste, toxic exposure, popular opposition, and public disgust, the US invasion of Iraq induced a regional death spiral and inspired new terrorist networks of the kind that the war was ostensibly fought to vanquish.'"]
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 24, 2018
2018 Voter Guide: Kentucky Election Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (2018)
"The Authoritarian Personality." Dialogic Cinephilia (May 22, 2018)
Bragg, Billy. "Roots, Radicals and Rockers." Talkhouse (April 5, 2018) ["Today’s show features a talk the brilliant English folk-punk activist Billy Bragg gave on skiffle music at NYC’s Strand Bookstore last year upon the release of his book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. Bragg traces the little-known genre from its distinctly American roots to its British chart-topping success, and consequent all-conquering return to America repackaged as the British Invasion. He describes how the short-lived “hillbilly” sound forever changed the course of Western music via its teenaged adherents, who included Van Morrison and, crucially, the Beatles. This utterly fascinating tale also touches on questions of cultural appropriation (and appropriation of appropriation), how young women wanting to jive created a new gig infrastructure, calypso hitting the U.K. charts due to a cricket match, and how the spread of skiffle — and, for that matter, rap — mimics the fidget spinner."]
Knife Skills (USA: Thomas Lennon, 2017: 40 mins) ["What does it take to build a world-class French restaurant? What if the staff is almost entirely men and women just out of prison? What if most have never cooked or served before, and have barely two months to learn their trade? We follow the hectic launch of Edwins restaurant in Cleveland. In this improbable setting, with its mouth-watering dishes and its arcane French vocabulary, we discover the challenges of men and women finding their way after their release. We come to know three trainees intimately, as well as the restaurant's founder, who is himself haunted by his time in jail. These men and women all have something to prove, and all struggle to launch new lives, an endeavor as pressured and perilous as the ambitious restaurant launch of which they are a part."]
Knife Skills - Trailer (2017) from ro*co films on Vimeo.
Lamb, Robert and Joe McCormick. "Bicameralism, Part 1: The Voice of God." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (September 26, 2017) ["In 1976, psychologist Julian Jaynes presented the world with a stunning new take on the history of human consciousness. His book “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” hypothesized that ancient humans heard hallucinated voices in place of conscious thought, and presented archaeological, literary, historical and religious evidence to support this highly controversial view. Join Robert and Joe as they dissect bicameralism and discuss the evidence, the criticisms and more in this two-parter."]
---. "Bicameralism, Part 2: The Silent Pantheon." Stuff To Blow Your Mind (September 28, 2017)
LePire, Bobby. "Cold November." Film Threat (May 22, 2017)
Menkes, Nina. "The Visual Language of Oppression: Harvey Wasn’t Working in a Vacuum." Filmmaker (October 30, 2017)
"The New Studs Terkel Radio Archive Will Let You Hear 5,000+ Recordings Featuring the Great American Broadcaster & Interviewer." Open Culture (May 17, 2018)
"Rats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist." Cinephilia & Beyond (ND)
"The Authoritarian Personality." Dialogic Cinephilia (May 22, 2018)
Bragg, Billy. "Roots, Radicals and Rockers." Talkhouse (April 5, 2018) ["Today’s show features a talk the brilliant English folk-punk activist Billy Bragg gave on skiffle music at NYC’s Strand Bookstore last year upon the release of his book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. Bragg traces the little-known genre from its distinctly American roots to its British chart-topping success, and consequent all-conquering return to America repackaged as the British Invasion. He describes how the short-lived “hillbilly” sound forever changed the course of Western music via its teenaged adherents, who included Van Morrison and, crucially, the Beatles. This utterly fascinating tale also touches on questions of cultural appropriation (and appropriation of appropriation), how young women wanting to jive created a new gig infrastructure, calypso hitting the U.K. charts due to a cricket match, and how the spread of skiffle — and, for that matter, rap — mimics the fidget spinner."]
Knife Skills (USA: Thomas Lennon, 2017: 40 mins) ["What does it take to build a world-class French restaurant? What if the staff is almost entirely men and women just out of prison? What if most have never cooked or served before, and have barely two months to learn their trade? We follow the hectic launch of Edwins restaurant in Cleveland. In this improbable setting, with its mouth-watering dishes and its arcane French vocabulary, we discover the challenges of men and women finding their way after their release. We come to know three trainees intimately, as well as the restaurant's founder, who is himself haunted by his time in jail. These men and women all have something to prove, and all struggle to launch new lives, an endeavor as pressured and perilous as the ambitious restaurant launch of which they are a part."]
Knife Skills - Trailer (2017) from ro*co films on Vimeo.
---. "Bicameralism, Part 2: The Silent Pantheon." Stuff To Blow Your Mind (September 28, 2017)
LePire, Bobby. "Cold November." Film Threat (May 22, 2017)
Menkes, Nina. "The Visual Language of Oppression: Harvey Wasn’t Working in a Vacuum." Filmmaker (October 30, 2017)
"The New Studs Terkel Radio Archive Will Let You Hear 5,000+ Recordings Featuring the Great American Broadcaster & Interviewer." Open Culture (May 17, 2018)
"Rats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist." Cinephilia & Beyond (ND)
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Authoritarian Personality
As set out by Theodor Adorno:
Conventionalism: Rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values. Authoritarian Submission: Submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealised moral authorities of the ingroup. Anti-intraception: Opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded. Authoritarian Aggression: Tendency to be on the lookout for, and to condemn, reject,and punish people who violate conventional values. Superstition and Stereotypy: The belief in mystical determinants of the individual's fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories. Power and 'Toughness': Preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures; overemphasis upon the conventionalised attributes of the ego; exaggerated assertion of toughness and strength. Destructiveness and Cynicism: Generalised hostility, vilification of the human. Projectivity: The disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; the projection outwards of unconscious emotional impulses. Sex: Exaggerated concern with sexual 'goings-on.' (753)
- Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
- What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, is a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.
- What the youth need most is strict discipline, rugged determination, and the will to work and fight for family and country.
- There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude, and respect for his parents.
- Sex crimes, such as rape and attacks on children, deserve more than mere imprisonment; such criminals ought to be publicly whipped, or worse.
- The true American way of life is disappearing so fast that force may be necessary to preserve it. (254)
Adorno, Theodor W. The Authoritarian Personality. Wiley, 1964.This outline of the Authoritarian Personality is over a half-century old - what could we add to it now?
Ross, Alex. "The Frankfurt School Knew Trump Was Coming." The New Yorker (December 5, 2016)
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 21, 2018
Alter, Adam. "The Rise of Addictive Technology." Radio West (March 5, 2018) ["Marketing professor Adam Alter begins his new book by noting that Steve Jobs didn’t let his own children use an iPad, a product he invented, because he was worried they’d get addicted to it. That’s what Alter’s book is about: our increasing addiction to technology. These days, we aren’t just hooked on substances, like drugs and alcohol. We’re addicted to video games, social media, porn, email, and lots more. Alter joins us to explore the business and psychology of irresistible technologies."]
Brunsting, Joshua. "Paul Schrader's First Reformed." Criterion Cast (May 15, 2018)
Bursztynski, Maurice, Tim Merrill and Bernard Stickwell. "The Doors." See Hear #50 (March 20, 2018) ["It’s 1991. The Western world has been going through a 1960s music nostalgia revival over the previous decade and a very strong Doors revival in particular. It seemed like a good time for Oliver Stone to make a biopic about Jim Morrison. ... We discuss narcissism, historical accuracy versus dramatic license, bad poetry, Ed Sullivan, the perfect storm that was the musical stylings of Densmore, Kreiger and Manzarek, and the similarity between something Jim Morrison allegedly did in Florida with something GG Allin definitely did….discussed waaaaaayyyyy back in episode 1 of See Hear."]
Chen, Nick. "The film about loneliness in New York with a brilliant, deaf teenage star." Dazed (April 6, 2018) ["We speak to Todd Haynes about ‘Wonderstruck’, the brilliance of 15-year-old Millicent Simmonds, and how we take hearing for granted"]
Freeman, Mark, Joanna Di Mattia and Eloise Ross. "The Ornithologist." Senses of Cinema Podcast (November 22, 2017)
Scahill, Jeremy. "Blacklisted Academic Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, 'The World's Largest Concentration Camp.'" The Intercept (May 20, 2018)
Vogel, Joseph. "The Forgotten Baldwin." The Boston Review (May 14, 2018)
West, Steven. "The Townshend Acts." Revolutions 2.3 (February 2014) ["After the failure of the Stamp Act, (the British) Parliament passed a new set of taxes known as the Townshend Acts. The (American) colonists were not amused."]
Brunsting, Joshua. "Paul Schrader's First Reformed." Criterion Cast (May 15, 2018)
Bursztynski, Maurice, Tim Merrill and Bernard Stickwell. "The Doors." See Hear #50 (March 20, 2018) ["It’s 1991. The Western world has been going through a 1960s music nostalgia revival over the previous decade and a very strong Doors revival in particular. It seemed like a good time for Oliver Stone to make a biopic about Jim Morrison. ... We discuss narcissism, historical accuracy versus dramatic license, bad poetry, Ed Sullivan, the perfect storm that was the musical stylings of Densmore, Kreiger and Manzarek, and the similarity between something Jim Morrison allegedly did in Florida with something GG Allin definitely did….discussed waaaaaayyyyy back in episode 1 of See Hear."]
Chen, Nick. "The film about loneliness in New York with a brilliant, deaf teenage star." Dazed (April 6, 2018) ["We speak to Todd Haynes about ‘Wonderstruck’, the brilliance of 15-year-old Millicent Simmonds, and how we take hearing for granted"]
Freeman, Mark, Joanna Di Mattia and Eloise Ross. "The Ornithologist." Senses of Cinema Podcast (November 22, 2017)
Scahill, Jeremy. "Blacklisted Academic Norman Finkelstein on Gaza, 'The World's Largest Concentration Camp.'" The Intercept (May 20, 2018)
Vogel, Joseph. "The Forgotten Baldwin." The Boston Review (May 14, 2018)
West, Steven. "The Townshend Acts." Revolutions 2.3 (February 2014) ["After the failure of the Stamp Act, (the British) Parliament passed a new set of taxes known as the Townshend Acts. The (American) colonists were not amused."]
Friday, May 18, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 18, 2018
Benton, Michael. "Recommended Films of 2017." Letterboxd (Ongoing Archive)
Cage, Nicholas. "Paul Schrader Tells Nicholas Cage Why First Reformed is His Masterpiece." Andy Warhol's Interview (April 6, 2018)
"Duct Soup: The Daffy, Dystopian Design Nightmare of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil." Cinephilia & Beyond (ND)
Fullerton, Matthew. "Beauty and the Dogs: Women's Revolution in Tunisian Cinema." Film International (April 12, 2018)
Hemon, Aleksandar. "Why Phantom Thread is Propaganda for Toxic Masculinity." The New Yorker (April 8, 2018)
Hope, Clover. "The Effects of #MeToo on Film's Violent Male Gaze." Jezebel (April 6, 2018)
"Moby Lets You Download 4 Hours of Ambient Music to Help You Sleep, Meditate, Do Yoga & Not Panic." Open Culture (June 8, 2016)
Smith, Nathan. "Let the Sunshine In (2018) by Claire Denis." Cinematary (May 15, 2018)
Weatherford, Jack. "Genghis Khan's Surprising Legacy." Radio West (March 2, 2018) ["What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Genghis Khan? Conquest, right? The terrifying Mongol hordes. But Genghis Khan’s legacy wasn’t built entirely on the battlefield. Motivated by fear and love, he was remarkably fair to the people he subjugated, going so far as to grant them religious freedom. Anthropologist Jack Weatherford has chronicled Genghis’s life and ideas, and he joins us to discuss their place in American political life and what they can teach us today."]
Cage, Nicholas. "Paul Schrader Tells Nicholas Cage Why First Reformed is His Masterpiece." Andy Warhol's Interview (April 6, 2018)
"Duct Soup: The Daffy, Dystopian Design Nightmare of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil." Cinephilia & Beyond (ND)
Fullerton, Matthew. "Beauty and the Dogs: Women's Revolution in Tunisian Cinema." Film International (April 12, 2018)
Hope, Clover. "The Effects of #MeToo on Film's Violent Male Gaze." Jezebel (April 6, 2018)
"Moby Lets You Download 4 Hours of Ambient Music to Help You Sleep, Meditate, Do Yoga & Not Panic." Open Culture (June 8, 2016)
Smith, Nathan. "Let the Sunshine In (2018) by Claire Denis." Cinematary (May 15, 2018)
Weatherford, Jack. "Genghis Khan's Surprising Legacy." Radio West (March 2, 2018) ["What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Genghis Khan? Conquest, right? The terrifying Mongol hordes. But Genghis Khan’s legacy wasn’t built entirely on the battlefield. Motivated by fear and love, he was remarkably fair to the people he subjugated, going so far as to grant them religious freedom. Anthropologist Jack Weatherford has chronicled Genghis’s life and ideas, and he joins us to discuss their place in American political life and what they can teach us today."]
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 17, 2018
Bursztynski, Maurice, Kerry Fristoe and Tim Merrill. "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." See Hear #51 (April 23, 2018) ["Daniel Johnston’s story has so many facets to it. Prolific songwriter, artist, musician, DIY promoter of his work…..sufferer of bipolar disorder and manic depression, obsession with an unobtainable muse, deep religious convictions who feared Satan was after him. On top of that, he faced the pressure of someone in the spotlight after celebrity endorsement – a frightening prospect for anyone, never mind a fragile character like Daniel. The film somehow manages to provide a well-rounded picture in under two hours about who Johnston is. It doesn’t paint him as a saint, nor is it emotionally manipulative. He could be honest and endearing, but he was capable of selfish and frightening acts as well. Jeff Feurzeig gives us an objective account like a true investigative journalist would about a man devoted to his art who struggled with his mental health – a well rounded account of both aspects and more is provided in this film."]
Cromwell, David and David Edwards. "‘A Suffocating Groupthink’: Sampling The Corporate Media On Israel, Iran, Syria And Russia." Media Lens (May 16, 2018)
Durham, Chris. "The Road to Guantanamo (2006): A Commentary." Film and History (ND)
Hassler-Roberts, Dan. "The 300 Controversy: A Case Study in the Politics of Adaptation." Film and History (ND)
Hochscherf, Tobias and Christoph Laucht. "Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)." Film and History (ND)
Klay, Phil. "The Lesson of Eric Greitens, and the Navy SEALs Who Tried to Warn Us." The New Yorker (May 17, 2018) ["The charges facing the embattled governor of Missouri have stunned voters, but in the tight-knit Naval Special Warfare community, Greitens has been a divisive figure for years."]
Lukas, Blake. "Douglas Sirk at Universal-International, Part 1: The Studio." Notebook (April 2, 2018) ["How the merger of Universal with International studios in 1946 set the stage for Douglas Sirk, two decades into his career, to flourish."]
---. "Douglas Sirk at Universal-International, Part 2: The Films." Notebook (April 9, 2018) ["How a great director engaged with the aesthetics, talents and desires of a Hollywood studio to produce his best work."]
Norelli, Clare Nina. "Scores on Screen: The Soundscapes of Orlando." Notebook (April 25, 2018) ["Working with David Motion, writer/director Sally Potter composed the music for the story of the time traveling, androgynous nobleman."]
Ringwald, Molly. "What About The Breakfast Club?" The New Yorker (April 6, 2018) ["Revisiting the movies of my youth in the age of #MeToo."]
Cromwell, David and David Edwards. "‘A Suffocating Groupthink’: Sampling The Corporate Media On Israel, Iran, Syria And Russia." Media Lens (May 16, 2018)
Durham, Chris. "The Road to Guantanamo (2006): A Commentary." Film and History (ND)
Hassler-Roberts, Dan. "The 300 Controversy: A Case Study in the Politics of Adaptation." Film and History (ND)
Hochscherf, Tobias and Christoph Laucht. "Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)." Film and History (ND)
Klay, Phil. "The Lesson of Eric Greitens, and the Navy SEALs Who Tried to Warn Us." The New Yorker (May 17, 2018) ["The charges facing the embattled governor of Missouri have stunned voters, but in the tight-knit Naval Special Warfare community, Greitens has been a divisive figure for years."]
---. "Douglas Sirk at Universal-International, Part 2: The Films." Notebook (April 9, 2018) ["How a great director engaged with the aesthetics, talents and desires of a Hollywood studio to produce his best work."]
Norelli, Clare Nina. "Scores on Screen: The Soundscapes of Orlando." Notebook (April 25, 2018) ["Working with David Motion, writer/director Sally Potter composed the music for the story of the time traveling, androgynous nobleman."]
Ringwald, Molly. "What About The Breakfast Club?" The New Yorker (April 6, 2018) ["Revisiting the movies of my youth in the age of #MeToo."]
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 16, 2018
Aquino, Rowena Santos. "A.W.: A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (USA, 2018) and the feeling of images." VCinema (April 9, 2018)
Bursztynski, Maurice, and Hank Hellman. "We Are the Best!" See Hear #43 (August 20, 2017) ["Can you imagine two grown men talking about a film on which the plot revolves around three teenage girls forming a punk band and only one of them has any musical chops? Imagine no further because Maurice is joined by Hank Hellman to do just that. The notions of friendship, being an outsider, sticking it to parents (not always deservedly) and chocolate ice cream are all universal themes, so the gents qualify to discuss Lukas Moodyson's 2013 film based on a graphic novel by his wife Coco. The film is funny, honest, scattered, and most importantly realistic. This is not a Steven Spielberg tale of growing up and "learning something" in the dying moments. It's about 3 friends having fun, getting jealous, not always doing the right thing by each other, and standing up for themselves in small ordinary ways....you know....real life!!!!"]
Duncan, Mike. "The Stamp Act." Revolutions (February 16, 2014) ["After the French and Indian War, the British Ministry started levying new taxes on the colonies. The colonists were not amused. "]
Gambino, Lauren. "Hundreds arrested as activists pick up where Martin Luther King left off." The Guardian (May 14, 2018) ["The Poor People’s campaign kicked off 40 days of nonviolent protest on Monday, reviving King’s anti-poverty efforts and demanding action."]
Lain, Douglas. "How I Accidentally Wrote the Antithesis of a Spielberg Blockbuster." Los Angeles Review of Books (April 18, 2018)
Rhoads, Kelton. "Propaganda Tactics and Fahrenheit 9/11." Film and History (September 11, 2004)
West, Steven. "Structuralism and Context." Philosophize This! (January 28, 2018) ["On this episode, we talk about the origins of Structuralism. Included is a discussion on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, (born Nov. 26, 1857, Geneva, Switz.—died Feb. 22, 1913, Vufflens-le-Château), Swiss linguist whose ideas on structure in language laid the foundation for much of the approach to and progress of the linguistic sciences in the 20th century."]
---. "Structuralism and Mythology (Part 1)." Philosophize This! (March 18, 2018) ["On this episode, we talk about the mythology that underlies the media we consume and how it serves as an access point to the structures of culture."]
---. "Structuralism and Mythology (Part 2)." Philosophize This! (March 18, 2018)
Bursztynski, Maurice, and Hank Hellman. "We Are the Best!" See Hear #43 (August 20, 2017) ["Can you imagine two grown men talking about a film on which the plot revolves around three teenage girls forming a punk band and only one of them has any musical chops? Imagine no further because Maurice is joined by Hank Hellman to do just that. The notions of friendship, being an outsider, sticking it to parents (not always deservedly) and chocolate ice cream are all universal themes, so the gents qualify to discuss Lukas Moodyson's 2013 film based on a graphic novel by his wife Coco. The film is funny, honest, scattered, and most importantly realistic. This is not a Steven Spielberg tale of growing up and "learning something" in the dying moments. It's about 3 friends having fun, getting jealous, not always doing the right thing by each other, and standing up for themselves in small ordinary ways....you know....real life!!!!"]
Duncan, Mike. "The Stamp Act." Revolutions (February 16, 2014) ["After the French and Indian War, the British Ministry started levying new taxes on the colonies. The colonists were not amused. "]
Gambino, Lauren. "Hundreds arrested as activists pick up where Martin Luther King left off." The Guardian (May 14, 2018) ["The Poor People’s campaign kicked off 40 days of nonviolent protest on Monday, reviving King’s anti-poverty efforts and demanding action."]
Lain, Douglas. "How I Accidentally Wrote the Antithesis of a Spielberg Blockbuster." Los Angeles Review of Books (April 18, 2018)
Rhoads, Kelton. "Propaganda Tactics and Fahrenheit 9/11." Film and History (September 11, 2004)
West, Steven. "Structuralism and Context." Philosophize This! (January 28, 2018) ["On this episode, we talk about the origins of Structuralism. Included is a discussion on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, (born Nov. 26, 1857, Geneva, Switz.—died Feb. 22, 1913, Vufflens-le-Château), Swiss linguist whose ideas on structure in language laid the foundation for much of the approach to and progress of the linguistic sciences in the 20th century."]
---. "Structuralism and Mythology (Part 1)." Philosophize This! (March 18, 2018) ["On this episode, we talk about the mythology that underlies the media we consume and how it serves as an access point to the structures of culture."]
---. "Structuralism and Mythology (Part 2)." Philosophize This! (March 18, 2018)
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 15, 2018
Giroux, Henry A. "The Slow and Fast Assault on Public Education." Boston Review (May 14, 2018)
Gould, Elise, Zane Mokhiber and Julia Wolfe. "Class of 2018: College Edition." Economic Policy Institute (May 10, 2018)
Ivins, Laura. "Moonrise Kingdom's Cinematic Ancestors." A Place for Film (May 14, 2018)
Mishel, Lawrence. "As cities and states pass bold increases in the minimum wage, we need to update our thinking about its costs." Working Economics (May 14, 2018)
Moonrise Kingdom (USA: Wes Anderson, 2012) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
The Perkins Project on Workers' Rights and Wages Economic Policy Institute (Ongoing Archive) ["EPI’s Perkins Project on Worker Rights and Wages is a policy response team tracking the wage and employment policies coming out of the White House, Congress, and the courts. This watchdog unit of economists and lawyers keeps an especially close eye on the federal agencies that establish and defend workers’ rights, wages, and working conditions, including the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Perkins Project is headed by former Labor Department Chief Economist Heidi Shierholz and is named for Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary under FDR and principal architect of the New Deal labor reforms. Inspired by Perkins’s legacy, the Perkins Project monitors, analyzes, and publicizes any attempts to dismantle the laws and regulations that protect worker rights and wages. Perkins Project reporting on this site arms activists, journalists, lawmakers, and lawyers with the facts they need to fight for working people."]
Raising America's Pay Economic Policy Institute (Ongoing Archive) ["Right now there is much debate over what to do about rising income inequality in America. These discussions too often miss that the key to shared prosperity is to foster wage growth. Pay of the vast majority of Americans has been stuck for decades, even though productivity and earnings at the top are escalating. Americans are working harder, more productively, and with more education than ever, but are treading water, as an enormous and ever-increasing share of income growth goes to corporate profits and executive pay. This is a solvable problem. It can be traced in no small part to policies that have allowed labor standards, business practices, and ideas of fairness to increasingly favor employers at the expense of workers. That is why the Economic Policy Institute launched Raising America’s Pay, a multiyear research and public education initiative to make wage growth an urgent national policy priority. By explaining wage and benefit patterns—and the role of labor market policies and practices in suppressing pay—the initiative is identifying policies that will generate broad-based wage growth. This work is connecting with and supporting civic engagement and community organizing groups working on pay and job quality issues to support their campaigns."]
Gould, Elise, Zane Mokhiber and Julia Wolfe. "Class of 2018: College Edition." Economic Policy Institute (May 10, 2018)
Ivins, Laura. "Moonrise Kingdom's Cinematic Ancestors." A Place for Film (May 14, 2018)
Moonrise Kingdom (USA: Wes Anderson, 2012) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
The Perkins Project on Workers' Rights and Wages Economic Policy Institute (Ongoing Archive) ["EPI’s Perkins Project on Worker Rights and Wages is a policy response team tracking the wage and employment policies coming out of the White House, Congress, and the courts. This watchdog unit of economists and lawyers keeps an especially close eye on the federal agencies that establish and defend workers’ rights, wages, and working conditions, including the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Perkins Project is headed by former Labor Department Chief Economist Heidi Shierholz and is named for Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary under FDR and principal architect of the New Deal labor reforms. Inspired by Perkins’s legacy, the Perkins Project monitors, analyzes, and publicizes any attempts to dismantle the laws and regulations that protect worker rights and wages. Perkins Project reporting on this site arms activists, journalists, lawmakers, and lawyers with the facts they need to fight for working people."]
Raising America's Pay Economic Policy Institute (Ongoing Archive) ["Right now there is much debate over what to do about rising income inequality in America. These discussions too often miss that the key to shared prosperity is to foster wage growth. Pay of the vast majority of Americans has been stuck for decades, even though productivity and earnings at the top are escalating. Americans are working harder, more productively, and with more education than ever, but are treading water, as an enormous and ever-increasing share of income growth goes to corporate profits and executive pay. This is a solvable problem. It can be traced in no small part to policies that have allowed labor standards, business practices, and ideas of fairness to increasingly favor employers at the expense of workers. That is why the Economic Policy Institute launched Raising America’s Pay, a multiyear research and public education initiative to make wage growth an urgent national policy priority. By explaining wage and benefit patterns—and the role of labor market policies and practices in suppressing pay—the initiative is identifying policies that will generate broad-based wage growth. This work is connecting with and supporting civic engagement and community organizing groups working on pay and job quality issues to support their campaigns."]
Monday, May 14, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - May 14, 2018
Ballin, Dima, David Kleiler and J.P. Ouillette. "Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940)." The Rear Window #3 (October 29, 2017) ["As a producer/director team, David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock had a tumultuous, yet respectful relationship which produced classic films like Spellbound (1945) and Rebecca (1940). Since Criterion has recently released Rebecca on blu-ray, in a stunning new transfer, we decided to delve into this haunting film which proved so pivotal in Hitchcock’s career."]
"Case Studies: Kogonada's Columbus (2017)." Sundance Institute (2018)
Cone, Stephen. "Films for Children at the End of the World: An Appreciation of Carroll Ballard." Talkhouse (April 6, 2018)
Duncan, Mike. "The Thirteen Colonies." Revolutions 2.1 (February 9, 2014)
ENG 281/282: 1940s Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Family Budget Calculator Economic Policy Institute (ND) ["EPI’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the United States. Compared with the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure, EPI’s family budgets provide a more accurate and complete measure of economic security in America."]
Gores, Jared, et al. "Good Time." Reel Fanatics #523 (September 24, 2017)
O'Hehir, Andrew. "Lost in 'the desert of the real' with Donald Trump: We all took the red pill, right? It didn’t work." Salon (May 5, 2018)
The Matrix/The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions (Australia/USA: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999/2003/2003b) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Zimmerman, Amy. "Sex Workers Fear for Their Future: How SESTA Is Putting Many Prostitutes in Peril." The Daily Beast (April 4, 2018) ["With Congress passing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, many sex workers are worried they’ll be forced to go back on the streets. So they’re deciding to fight back."]
"Case Studies: Kogonada's Columbus (2017)." Sundance Institute (2018)
Cone, Stephen. "Films for Children at the End of the World: An Appreciation of Carroll Ballard." Talkhouse (April 6, 2018)
Duncan, Mike. "The Thirteen Colonies." Revolutions 2.1 (February 9, 2014)
ENG 281/282: 1940s Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Family Budget Calculator Economic Policy Institute (ND) ["EPI’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types (one or two adults with zero to four children) in all counties and metro areas in the United States. Compared with the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure, EPI’s family budgets provide a more accurate and complete measure of economic security in America."]
Gores, Jared, et al. "Good Time." Reel Fanatics #523 (September 24, 2017)
O'Hehir, Andrew. "Lost in 'the desert of the real' with Donald Trump: We all took the red pill, right? It didn’t work." Salon (May 5, 2018)
The Matrix/The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions (Australia/USA: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999/2003/2003b) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Zimmerman, Amy. "Sex Workers Fear for Their Future: How SESTA Is Putting Many Prostitutes in Peril." The Daily Beast (April 4, 2018) ["With Congress passing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, many sex workers are worried they’ll be forced to go back on the streets. So they’re deciding to fight back."]
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Slurring Bee 12
Also need 15 absurd/quirky warm up questions
1st Round: warm-up question followed by a word
2nd Round: 3 words in succession for each contestant
3rd Round: Round-robin until we have a winner (keep track of last three - the order they come in)
3 mispelled words and a contestant is out
Pronouncer Information 1. Read carefully the Judges, Recorders, Spellers and Audiences information that is included in the Scripps pronouncers’ guide. 2. Familiarize yourself with all words on the confidential word list. Pronunciation is important. A meeting with the judges to insure pronunciation of words and procedures will be scheduled prior to the Bee beginning. 3. Speak clearly for contestants, judges and audience alike. Grant all requests to repeat a word until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. You may request the speller to speak more clearly or louder. 4. “Pace” yourself. You need time to focus attention on the pronunciation of the new word and the judges need a few moments between each contestant to do their tasks.
1st Round: warm-up question followed by a word
2nd Round: 3 words in succession for each contestant
3rd Round: Round-robin until we have a winner (keep track of last three - the order they come in)
3 mispelled words and a contestant is out
Pronouncer Information 1. Read carefully the Judges, Recorders, Spellers and Audiences information that is included in the Scripps pronouncers’ guide. 2. Familiarize yourself with all words on the confidential word list. Pronunciation is important. A meeting with the judges to insure pronunciation of words and procedures will be scheduled prior to the Bee beginning. 3. Speak clearly for contestants, judges and audience alike. Grant all requests to repeat a word until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. You may request the speller to speak more clearly or louder. 4. “Pace” yourself. You need time to focus attention on the pronunciation of the new word and the judges need a few moments between each contestant to do their tasks.
Speller’s Information 1. Each speller needs to focus on the Pronouncer, to aid his or her hearing and understanding of the context of the word. A speller may ask for the word to be repeated, for its use in a sentence, for a definition, for the part of speech, and for the language of origin. 2. Each speller should pronounce the word before and after spelling it. If the speller fails to pronounce the word after spelling it, the judge may ask if they are finished. If they say yes, the judge will remind the speller to remember to repeat the word the next time. (No speller will be eliminated for failing to pronounce a word.) 3. When a speller is at the podium spelling, the next speller should be standing at a marked location ready to proceed to the podium.
368) solipsism
369) shibboleth
370) arctic
371) symbiont
372) ginormous
373) triage
374) remuneration
375) acquaintance
Slurring Bee #5 - 153
368) solipsism
369) shibboleth
370) arctic
371) symbiont
372) ginormous
373) triage
374) remuneration
375) acquaintance
Slurring Bee #5 - 153
The Matrix/The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions (Australia/USA: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999/2003/2003b)
[Note: I didn't include a trailer for The Matrix because all of the available trailers online give away too much of the plot. If you have not seen this film, I would advise that you watch it without viewing any of the trailers or reading any of the sources below.]
The Matrix/The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions (Australia/USA: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999: 136 mins/2003: 133 mins/2003b: 129 mins)
Benton, Michael Dean. "Decoding the Success of The Matrix: A Contextual Analysis of the Influences of Postmodern Theory and Underground Cultures." (English Department, Illinois State University: 2000). [Professor has copies]
De Fren, Allison. "Fembot in a Red Dress." (Posted on Vimeo: 2016) ["This video essay examines the cultural trope of the “lady in red” as it evolved from the genre of film noir to science fiction and from the human to the artificial female in a variety of film and television texts."]
Ebiri, Bilge. "15 Years Later, The Matrix Still Has Us." Vulture (March 31, 2014)
Falzon, Christopher. "Philosophy Through Film." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (August 12, 2013)
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt 1." The Next Picture Show #72 (April 18, 2017) ["The poorly received new live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL draws inspiration from a lot of different sources — including one that was itself inspired by the original GHOST IN THE SHELL anime: The Wachowskis’ 1999 future-thriller THE MATRIX, which turns on a similar form of science-fiction dysmorphia. In this half of the discussion, we focus in on tiny miracle that is THE MATRIX, a studio-backed, creator-driven sci-fi film that drew from a deep well of cinematic, literary, and philosophical reference points — and would go on to influence countless other films in turn, including, naturally, the new GHOST IN THE SHELL"]
---. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt. 2." The Next Picture Show #73 (April 20, 2017) ["In this half of our discussion of the “weird conceptual sandwich” that is THE MATRIX and GHOST IN THE SHELL, we puzzle over why the latter hyper-stylish, cerebral film fails where the former succeeds. The two films ultimately have different aims, but their approaches are surprisingly similar — though it’s how they differ that’s most telling."]
Netzel, Daniel. "The Matrix: Perennial Philosophy." Film Radar (Posted on Youtube: March 19, 2017)
O'Hehir, Andrew. "From Ike to “The Matrix”: Welcome to the American Dystopia." Salon (June 16, 2013)
---. "Lost in 'the desert of the real' with Donald Trump: We all took the red pill, right? It didn’t work." Salon (May 5, 2018)
Read, Max. "How The Matrix Fed Our Conspiracy-Laden World." On the Media (April 12, 2019) ["When it comes to nourishing paranoiac beliefs through pop culture, one of the most iconic works is the 1999 sci-fi political parable The Matrix. A computer hacker, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, journeys into a reality he didn’t know existed and must battle the system of machines controlling all of humanity. The plot of the movie hinges around a choice Neo makes to take a red pill and to wake up from his blissful ignorance. Bob talks with Max Read, a writer and editor at New York Magazine, about what red-pilling has come to signify on the internet and in American politics, and how different groups use the potent metaphor."]
Thoret, Jean-Baptiste. "The Seventies Reloaded: (What does the cinema think about when it dreams of Baudrillard?)." Senses of Cinema #59 (2011)
The Matrix/The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions (Australia/USA: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999: 136 mins/2003: 133 mins/2003b: 129 mins)
Benton, Michael Dean. "Decoding the Success of The Matrix: A Contextual Analysis of the Influences of Postmodern Theory and Underground Cultures." (English Department, Illinois State University: 2000). [Professor has copies]
De Fren, Allison. "Fembot in a Red Dress." (Posted on Vimeo: 2016) ["This video essay examines the cultural trope of the “lady in red” as it evolved from the genre of film noir to science fiction and from the human to the artificial female in a variety of film and television texts."]
Ebiri, Bilge. "15 Years Later, The Matrix Still Has Us." Vulture (March 31, 2014)
Falzon, Christopher. "Philosophy Through Film." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (August 12, 2013)
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt 1." The Next Picture Show #72 (April 18, 2017) ["The poorly received new live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL draws inspiration from a lot of different sources — including one that was itself inspired by the original GHOST IN THE SHELL anime: The Wachowskis’ 1999 future-thriller THE MATRIX, which turns on a similar form of science-fiction dysmorphia. In this half of the discussion, we focus in on tiny miracle that is THE MATRIX, a studio-backed, creator-driven sci-fi film that drew from a deep well of cinematic, literary, and philosophical reference points — and would go on to influence countless other films in turn, including, naturally, the new GHOST IN THE SHELL"]
---. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt. 2." The Next Picture Show #73 (April 20, 2017) ["In this half of our discussion of the “weird conceptual sandwich” that is THE MATRIX and GHOST IN THE SHELL, we puzzle over why the latter hyper-stylish, cerebral film fails where the former succeeds. The two films ultimately have different aims, but their approaches are surprisingly similar — though it’s how they differ that’s most telling."]
Netzel, Daniel. "The Matrix: Perennial Philosophy." Film Radar (Posted on Youtube: March 19, 2017)
O'Hehir, Andrew. "From Ike to “The Matrix”: Welcome to the American Dystopia." Salon (June 16, 2013)
---. "Lost in 'the desert of the real' with Donald Trump: We all took the red pill, right? It didn’t work." Salon (May 5, 2018)
Read, Max. "How The Matrix Fed Our Conspiracy-Laden World." On the Media (April 12, 2019) ["When it comes to nourishing paranoiac beliefs through pop culture, one of the most iconic works is the 1999 sci-fi political parable The Matrix. A computer hacker, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, journeys into a reality he didn’t know existed and must battle the system of machines controlling all of humanity. The plot of the movie hinges around a choice Neo makes to take a red pill and to wake up from his blissful ignorance. Bob talks with Max Read, a writer and editor at New York Magazine, about what red-pilling has come to signify on the internet and in American politics, and how different groups use the potent metaphor."]
Thoret, Jean-Baptiste. "The Seventies Reloaded: (What does the cinema think about when it dreams of Baudrillard?)." Senses of Cinema #59 (2011)
Walter, Damien. "The Matrix and the Archetypes of Carl Jung." Science Fiction (December 2021)
Zizek, Slavoj. "The Matrix, or Two Sides of Perversion." (Inside the Matrix: International Symposium at the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe: October 28 1999)
Zizek, Slavoj. "The Matrix, or Two Sides of Perversion." (Inside the Matrix: International Symposium at the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe: October 28 1999)
ENG 281/282: 1940s
1940
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (USA: John Cromwell, 1940: 110 mins)
Tudor, Deborah. "The hysteric, the mother, the natural gal — male fantasies and male theories in films about Lincoln." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Fantasia (USA: Disney Studios, 1940: 124 mins)
Kutner, C. Jerry. "FANTASIA (1940) – The Varieties of Religious Experience." Bright Lights After Dark (October 25, 2011)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Animation and Music: Fantasia." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 136-143. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Foreign Correspondent (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1940: 120 mins)
Harris, Mark. "Hitchcock During Wartime." The Current (February 19, 2014)
The Grapes of Wrath (USA: John Ford, 1940: 129 mins)
Sánchez-Escalonilla, Antonio. "From Hoover to Bush Jr.: Home and Crisis Scripts in U.S. Social Cinema." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
His Girl Friday (USA: Howard Hawks, 1940: 92 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "Quilty Makes This World: 12 Tricksters (CinemArchetype #1)." Acidemic (January 23, 2012)
The Philadelphia Story (USAL George Cukor, 1940: 112 mins)
Ray, Robert B. "The Philadelphia Story." The ABCs of Classic Hollywood. NY: Oxford UP, 2008: 85-156.
Pinocchio (USA: Norman Ferguson, et al, 1940: 88 mins)
Hollowell, Jenny. "The End of the End: An Evolution of Faith, in Five Films." Bright Wall/Dark Room #9 (March 29, 2016)
The Westerner (USA: William Wyler, 1940: 100 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
1941
The Lady Eve (USA: Preston Sturges, 1941: 94 mins)
Reginald, Stephen. "Preston Sturges and The Lady Eve." Classic Movie Man (November 15, 2015)
The Maltese Falcon (USA: John Huston, 1941: 100 mins)
Naremore, James. "Film Acting and the Arts of Imitation." Cyncos 27.2 (2011) ["Louise Brooks once said that in order to become a star, an actor needs to combine a natural-looking behavior with personal “eccentricity.” My presentation will explore some of the analytical problems raised by this phenomenon: What constitutes eccentricity and how is it balanced by naturalness in specific cases? What happens when a movie star acts in a film in which he or she impersonates the eccentricities of another star (Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Clint Eastwood as John Huston, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, etc.)? How can we distinguish between impersonation as caricature and impersonation as dramatic illusion? What is the difference, if any, between impersonation and stylistic influence?"]
Ray, Robert B. "The Maltese Falcon." The ABCs of Classic Hollywood. NY: Oxford UP, 2008: 157-244.
Man Hunt (USA: Fritz Lang, 1941: 105 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
Meet John Doe (USA: Frank Capra, 1941: 122 mins)
Bateman, Conor. "The Secret Video Essays of Jenni Olson." Keyframe (Posted on Vimeo: April 2016)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (USA: Edward Cline, 1941: 71 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #4: The Hanged Man." Acidemic (February 12, 2012)
Ornamental Hairpin (Japan: Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941: 70 mins)
Bugeja, Nicholas. "Romance, escapism and war in Ornamental Hairpin (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)." Senses of Cinema #94 (Spring 2020)
Sullivan's Travels (USA: Preston Sturges, 1941: 90 mins)
Longworth, Karina. "Veronica Lake (Dead Blondes Episode 4)." You Must Remember This (February 20, 2017) ["Veronica Lake had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life -- so how did she end up dead at 50?"]
The Wolf Man (USA: George Waggner, 1941: 70 mins)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (USA: John Cromwell, 1940: 110 mins)
Tudor, Deborah. "The hysteric, the mother, the natural gal — male fantasies and male theories in films about Lincoln." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Fantasia (USA: Disney Studios, 1940: 124 mins)
Kutner, C. Jerry. "FANTASIA (1940) – The Varieties of Religious Experience." Bright Lights After Dark (October 25, 2011)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Animation and Music: Fantasia." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 136-143. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Foreign Correspondent (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1940: 120 mins)
Harris, Mark. "Hitchcock During Wartime." The Current (February 19, 2014)
The Grapes of Wrath (USA: John Ford, 1940: 129 mins)
Sánchez-Escalonilla, Antonio. "From Hoover to Bush Jr.: Home and Crisis Scripts in U.S. Social Cinema." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
His Girl Friday (USA: Howard Hawks, 1940: 92 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "Quilty Makes This World: 12 Tricksters (CinemArchetype #1)." Acidemic (January 23, 2012)
Ray, Robert B. "The Philadelphia Story." The ABCs of Classic Hollywood. NY: Oxford UP, 2008: 85-156.
Pinocchio (USA: Norman Ferguson, et al, 1940: 88 mins)
Hollowell, Jenny. "The End of the End: An Evolution of Faith, in Five Films." Bright Wall/Dark Room #9 (March 29, 2016)
The Westerner (USA: William Wyler, 1940: 100 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
1941
The Lady Eve (USA: Preston Sturges, 1941: 94 mins)
Reginald, Stephen. "Preston Sturges and The Lady Eve." Classic Movie Man (November 15, 2015)
The Maltese Falcon (USA: John Huston, 1941: 100 mins)
Naremore, James. "Film Acting and the Arts of Imitation." Cyncos 27.2 (2011) ["Louise Brooks once said that in order to become a star, an actor needs to combine a natural-looking behavior with personal “eccentricity.” My presentation will explore some of the analytical problems raised by this phenomenon: What constitutes eccentricity and how is it balanced by naturalness in specific cases? What happens when a movie star acts in a film in which he or she impersonates the eccentricities of another star (Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Clint Eastwood as John Huston, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, etc.)? How can we distinguish between impersonation as caricature and impersonation as dramatic illusion? What is the difference, if any, between impersonation and stylistic influence?"]
Man Hunt (USA: Fritz Lang, 1941: 105 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
Meet John Doe (USA: Frank Capra, 1941: 122 mins)
Bateman, Conor. "The Secret Video Essays of Jenni Olson." Keyframe (Posted on Vimeo: April 2016)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (USA: Edward Cline, 1941: 71 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #4: The Hanged Man." Acidemic (February 12, 2012)
Ornamental Hairpin (Japan: Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941: 70 mins)
Bugeja, Nicholas. "Romance, escapism and war in Ornamental Hairpin (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)." Senses of Cinema #94 (Spring 2020)
Sullivan's Travels (USA: Preston Sturges, 1941: 90 mins)
Longworth, Karina. "Veronica Lake (Dead Blondes Episode 4)." You Must Remember This (February 20, 2017) ["Veronica Lake had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life -- so how did she end up dead at 50?"]
“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers at night may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” It may not be the best film in the Universal Classic Monsters canon, but it’s hard to think of a better performance than that of Lon Chaney Jr as the titular Wolf Man. The initial attack sequence, taking place during a date in a fog-swept forest, is one of the most beautiful set-pieces of any monster movie. Like most werewolf films, it’s a romantic tragedy, albeit one lent a rare potency by Chaney’s tortured interiority, haunted by guilt as he wrestles with the beast within. – Matthew Thrift
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #7: The Shadow." Acidemic (March 8, 2012)
1942
Bambi (USA: David Hand, 1942: 70 mins)
Zipes, Jack. "Bambi Isn't About What You Think Its About." Ideas (December 15, 2021) ["Most of us think we know the story of Bambi—but do we? The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest (Princeton UP, 2022) is an all-new, illustrated translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers’ images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film—an idealized look at a fawn who represents nature’s innocence—which was based on a 1928 English translation of a novel by the Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten. This masterful new translation gives contemporary readers a fresh perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator. Originally published in 1923, Salten’s story is more somber than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes’s introduction traces the history of the book’s reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life—as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution. With captivating drawings by award-winning artist Alenka Sottler, The Original Bambi captures the emotional impact and rich meanings of a celebrated story."]
The Eternal Jew (Germany: Fritz Hippler, 1942: 62 mins)
Presner, Todd. German 59: Holocaust in Film and Literature (2010 UCLA course posted on Youtube: February 10, 2010)
The Glass Key (USA: Stuart Heisler, 1942: 85 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "The Veronica Lake Effect." Acidemic #7 (2012)
The Great Love (Germany: Rolf Hansen, 1942: 102 mins)
Brockmann, Stephen. "Die grofse Liebe (1942) or Love and War." A Critical History of German Film Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010: 167-179. [Professor has copy of the book]
I Married a Witch (USA: René Clair, 1942: 77 mins)
Japanese Relocation (USA: Milton S. Eisenhower, 1942: 10 mins)
Jungle Book (USA/UK: Zoltan Korda, 1942: 108 mins)
Harvey, Dennis. "Sabu’s Enduring Star Power." Keyframe (January 5, 2014)
The Magnificent Ambersons (USA: Orson Welles, 1942: 88 mins)
White, Mike, et al. "The Magnificent Ambersons Production History." (Posted on Vimeo: 2014) ["Orson Welles's follow-up to Citizen Kane adapted Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer prize-winning novel about industrial progress and the loss of innocence set against a tumultuous family, the Ambersons. Welles infamously lost control of The Magnificent Ambersons before its final release. We'll examine its production, its destruction, and attempts to restore what many consider Welles's forgotten masterpiece."]
Saboteur (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1942: 109 mins)
Rappoport, Mark. "The Empty Screen." Talkhouse (Posted on Youtube: February 7, 2017) ["The screen is a neutral element in the film-going experience. Or is it? It projects dreams but is also the receptacle of our dreams. It’s the vehicle for delivering the image to an audience — but does it also watch the audience at the same time? Is it a complicitous membrane which audience members can penetrate and which interacts with the spectators, despite its seeming passivity? Maybe — to all of the above …"]
This Gun For Hire (USA: Frank Tuttle, 1942: 81 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "The Veronica Lake Effect." Acidemic #7 (2012)
To Be or Not to Be (USA: Ernst Lubitsch, 1942: 99 mins)
Marsh, Calum. "Can Humor Be Weaponized? We speak of satire as ‘venomous’ and ‘acerbic,’ but it isn’t the damage it deals that makes it significant." Keyframe (April 10, 2016)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
1943
Above Suspicion (USA: Richard Thorpe, 1943: 90 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
Day of Wrath (Denmark: Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943: 97 mins
Dreyer, Carl Theodor. "Thoughts on My Metier." The Current (August 20, 2001)
Wilkins, Budd. "Birthing Bad: Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist Through the Lens of “Nordic Horror." Acidemic #7 (2012)
Hangmen Also Die! (USA: Fritz Lang, 1943: 134 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
I Walked with a Zombie (USA: Jacques Tourneur, 1943: 69 mins)
Perhaps the greatest of director Jacques Tourneur’s films for Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie is a loose retelling of Jane Eyre, transposed to the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. Not a zombie film in the Romero sense, but one drawn from the rituals of vodou, its metaphors are disquietingly potent. A film about enslavement and the legacies of colonialism, the suggestiveness of the duo’s earlier Cat People is taken to oblique heights. In constant, critical dialogue with its own exoticism, Tourneur’s astonishingly expressive direction often edges towards abstraction in its uncanny diagnoses of its tropical maladies. – Matthew Thrift
Le Corbeau (France: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943: 92 mins)
Hancock, James and Mikhail Karadimov. "Exploring the Dark Side with Henri-Georges Clouzot." The Wrong Reel #274 (June 1, 2017)
Shadow of a Doubt (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1943: 108 mins)
"Director Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ – ‘Psycho’ – ‘The Birds’." Sound on Sight #309 (February 29, 2012)
Starr, Elana Rose. "Alfred Hitchcock: Auteur Filmmaker." Villanova University (ND)
1944
Cobra Woman (USA: Robert Siodmak, 1944: 71 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #7: The Shadow." Acidemic (March 8, 2012)
Gaslight (USA: George Cukor, 1944: 114 mins)
Dahl, Nel. "The Handmaiden by Gaslight: Park Chan-wook’s gothic female-vengeance drama owes a debt to George Cukor." Keyframe (October 19, 2016)
To Have and Have Not (USA: Howard Hawks, 1944: 100 mins)
Hudson, David. "Sex in the Movies." Green Cine (2005)
Laura (USA: Otto Preminger, 1944: 88 mins)
Meet Me in St Louis (USA: Vincent Minelli, 1944: 113 mins)
Collier, Stuart, Brian Risselada and Tom Sutpen. "Vincente Minnelli: The Beginning (1943-1948)." Illusion Travels by Streetcar #18 (June 12, 2014)
Ray, Robert B. "Meet Me in St Louis." The ABCs of Classic Hollywood. NY: Oxford UP, 2008: 245-328.
National Velvet (USA: Clarence Brown, 1944: 123 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #3: The Animus." Acidemic (February 1, 2012)
1945
I Know Where I Am Going (United Kingdom: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945: 91 mins)
Smith, Imogen Sara. "The Music of Words: Storytelling in Two Powell & Pressburger Films." Bright Lights Film Journal #79 (February 2013)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1945: 59 mins)
Vahdani, Alireza. "The effects of Kabuki on Akira Kurosawa’s Auteurism, Pt 1." and Part 2 Offscreen (October 31, 2010)
Mildred Pierce (USA: Michael Curtiz, 1945: 111 mins)
D., Margo and Margo P. "Mildred Pierce by J.M. Cain and Starring Joan Crawford." Book vs Movie (April 14, 2017)
Longworth, Karina. "Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)." You Must Remember This (August 29, 2016) ["Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood."]
Rome Open City (Italy: Roberto Rossellini, 1945: 103 mins)
Rossellini, Isabella. "Rome Open City." Film Forum (September 17, 2014) ["(1945) Rome, winter 1943: as screeching-tired Gestapo dragnets blanket the “open city,” Resistance leader Marcello Pagliero escapes from his apartment by running across the rooftops (as did co-screenwriter Sergio Amidei in real life), as pregnant widow Anna Magnani prepares for her wedding, parish priest Aldo Fabrizi uses the “frying pan method” to hide the local boys’ bomb brigade’s hardware, and effete Major Harry Feist riffles through his collection of incriminating ID photos – but betrayal, a broad-daylight machine-gunning, a Partisan ambush, blowtorch torture, and death by firing squad loom… Based on actual people and all-too-recent incidents (Magnani’s electrifying final scene was inspired by her enraged pursuit of her boyfriends’s escape by truck); written in a week in Federico Fellini’s kitchen (the only place with heat); shot on a number of the real locations, and cast mainly with non-pros (Fabrizi and second-choice Magnani were already famous, albeit for comedy), Open City’s documentary look and still hair-raising violence rocked audiences and critics around the world, making Neo-Realism, Rossellini, and Magnani world-famous, sharing the top prize at Cannes, and running twenty-one consecutive months at a single New York cinema. For years seen only in beat-up copies with hopelessly inadequate subtitles, this new restoration conveys the full meaning (and even the humor) of the dialogue for the very first time."]
1946
The Best Years of Our Lives (USA: William Wyler, 1946: 172 mins)
Kinder, Bill. "When Soldiers Come Home in the Movies: The post-war experience as told in tropes." Keyframe (November 11, 2015)
Duel in the Sun (USA: King Vidor, 1946: 144 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
Gilda (USA: Charles Vidor, 1946: 110 mins)
Hudson, David. "Sex in the Movies." Green Cine (2005)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
The Jolson Story (USA: Alfred E. Green, 1946: 128 mins)
Naremore, James. "Film Acting and the Arts of Imitation." Cyncos 27.2 (2011) ["Louise Brooks once said that in order to become a star, an actor needs to combine a natural-looking behavior with personal “eccentricity.” My presentation will explore some of the analytical problems raised by this phenomenon: What constitutes eccentricity and how is it balanced by naturalness in specific cases? What happens when a movie star acts in a film in which he or she impersonates the eccentricities of another star (Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Clint Eastwood as John Huston, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, etc.)? How can we distinguish between impersonation as caricature and impersonation as dramatic illusion? What is the difference, if any, between impersonation and stylistic influence?"]
Let There Be Light (USA: John Huston, 1946: 58 mins)
Jones, Kent. "To Tell the Truth: Let There Be Light." Reverse Shot (June 22, 2003)
The Murderers are Among Us (Germany: Wolfgang Staudte, 1946: 85 mins)
Brockmann, Stephen. "Die Mörder sind unter uns (1946): The Rubble Film." A Critical History of German Film Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010: 196-210. [Professor has copy of the book]
The Living Dead (BBC: Adam Curtis, 1995: three 60 minute episodes) ["The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past is a series of films that investigate the way that history and memory (both national and individual) have been manipulated and distorted by politicians and others for various means of control."]
My Darling Clementine (USA: John Ford, 1946: 97 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
Night and Day (USA: Michael Curtiz, 1946: 128 mins)
Heldt, Guido. Music and Levels of Narration in Film. Intellect, 2013. ["This is the first book-length study of the narratology of film music, and an indispensable resource for anyone researching or studying film music or film narratology. It surveys the so far piecemeal discussion of narratological concepts in film music studies, and tries to (cautiously) systematize them, and to expand and refine them with reference to ideas from general narratology and film narratology (including contributions from German-language literature less widely known in Anglophone scholarship). The book goes beyond the current focus of film music studies on the distinction between diegetic and nondiegetic music (music understood to be or not to be part of the storyworld of a film), and takes into account different levels of narration: from the extrafictional to ‘focalizations’ of subjectivity, and music’s many and complex movements between them."]
Notorious (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1946: 101 mins)
"Notorious: Hitchcock's Mature and Intricate Espionage Masterpiece." Cinephilia and Beyond (August 2016)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (USA: Lewis Milestone, 1946: 114 mins)
Bastién, Angelica Jade. "The Feminine Grotesque #5: Lilith’s Heir – On The Strange Love of Martha Ivers." Vague Visages (March 18, 2016)
The Stranger (USA: Orson Welles, 1946: 115 mins)
Barker, Jennifer Lynne. The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection. Routledge, 2013. [Get through interlibrary loan]
Callow, Simon. "Orson Welles." The Cinema Show (July 15, 2016) [Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane and respected police captain Hank Quinlan, both were men tempted by darkness and both were played by Orson Welles at opposite ends of his career. Actor, writer and director Simon Callow joins Ben Rylan for an extended interview in which they unpick the many myths surrounding one of cinema’s greatest talents.]
Damisch, Hubert. "Montage of Disaster." Cahiers du Cinema #599 (March 2005): 72-78.
Three Strangers (USA: Jean Negulesco, 1946: 92 mins)
Labuza, Peter and Farran Smith Nehme. "Three Strangers." The Cinephiliacs #6 (October 21, 2012)
1947
Black Narcissus (UK: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947: 100 mins)
Harvey, Dennis. "Sabu’s Enduring Star Power." Keyframe (January 5, 2014)
Jones, Kent. "Black Narcissus: Empire of the Senses." The Current (July 19, 2010) ["It is always tempting to uncouple the unearthly visual beauty and formal control of a Powell and Pressburger film from its psychological exactitude—and that urge is built into the films themselves. The characters (and the audience) are always on the brink of being overwhelmed by beauty, the beauty of the world on the one hand and of art on the other, which holds the impossible but ever present promise of a permanently heightened state. At the same time, however, the action is always firmly anchored in the fallacies and disturbances and longings of being human. We get the lure of beauty and its potentially dangerous effect at the same time. For instance, Powell’s remarkable precision with distances and angles of perception is as elegant and ingenious here as it is in all his great work, particularly the continued refrain of looking down—Kerr’s Sister Clodagh surveying the sisters gathered at the dinner table or, in a reverie, fixating on her grandmother’s footstool back in Ireland; Sabu’s Young General gazing down at Simmons’s Kanchi; Byron’s Sister Ruth spying from a series of heights within the open corridors of the newly christened convent on Sister Clodagh and her interactions with Mr. Dean; each of the sisters in turn contemplating the distant valley below. This insistence on up-down relationships (a constant in Powell’s work) gives the film a musical development akin to a slowly evolving theme or pattern and results in “mental images” as lasting as Hitchcock’s point-of-view shots. The moment when the screen goes red, as Sister Ruth passes out, is a startling reiteration of a powerful visual idea, but it may also be a representation of a genuine neurological phenomenon known as a “redout,” as Diane Broadbent Friedman postulates in her fascinating book on A Matter of Life and Death and its probable origins in real neuroscience."]
Daisy Kenyon (USA: Otto Preminger, 1947: 99 mins)
Longworth, Karina. "Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)." You Must Remember This (August 29, 2016) ["Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood."]
Miracle on 34th Street (USA: George Seaton, 1947: 96 mins)
El Goro. "It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947)." Talk Without Rhythm #397 (December 6, 2017)
Out of the Past (USA: Jacques Tourneur, 1947: 97 mins)
Doherty, Thomas. "Out of the Past." The Cinephiliacs #79 (May 15, 2016)
Quai des Orfèvres (France: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947: 106 mins)
Hancock, James and Mikhail Karadimov. "Exploring the Dark Side with Henri-Georges Clouzot." The Wrong Reel #274 (June 1, 2017)
1948
3 Godfathers (USA: John Ford, 1948: 106 mins)
Freedman, Carl. "Post-Hetrosexuality: John Wayne and the Construction of American
Masculinity." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has a copy]
A Foreign Affair (USA: Billy Wilder, 1948: 116 mins)
Carr, Jeremy. "Rubble Romance: A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948)." Senses of Cinema #94 (Spring 2020)
Riley, Christina. "Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair: Marlene Dietrich's Star Persona and American Interventionist Strategies in Postwar Berlin." Bright Lights Film Journal #76 (May 2012)
Bicycle Thieves (Italy: Vittorio De Sica, 1948: 93 mins)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Italian Neorealism: The Bicycle Thief." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 33-38. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Mooney, James. "Bicycle Thieves." Film and Philosophy (March 8, 2013)
Drunken Angel (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1948: 98 mins)
Hogg, Trevor. "Epic Dreamer: An Akira Kurosawa Profile." Flickering Myth (March 24, 2010)
Fort Apache (USA: John Ford, 1948: 125 mins)
Freedman, Carl. "Post-Hetrosexuality: John Wayne and the Construction of American Masculinity." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has a copy]
Kehr, Dave. "How the West Was Filled With Loss." The New York Times (March 25, 2012)
Oliver Twist (UK: David Lean, 1948: 105 mins)
Ferguson, Susan. "Capitalist Childhood in Film: Modes of Critique." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Portrait of Jennie (USA: William Dieterle, 1948: 86 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
The Red Shoes (UK: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948: 134 mins)
Bird, Daniel, Maitland McDonagh and Mike White. "The Red Shoes (1948)." The Projection Booth #319 (April 20, 2017) ["The film centers on the tumultuous world of dance, namely ballet. We follow Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) through triumphs and misfortunes. A favorite of Martin Scorsese, the film is a triumph of melodrama and includes several breathtaking dance sequences, most notably an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes."]
Ruthless (USA: Edgar G. Ulmer, 1948: 104 mins)
Act of Violence (USA: Fred Zinnemann, 1949: 82 mins)
Anthony, West, David Blakeslee and Robert Nishimura. "The First Films of Samuel Fuller." The Eclipse Viewer #4 (October 24, 2012)
Clarko, Clarko and Daniel Tiger. "Kind Hearts and Coronets." Cinema Gadfly (August 2015)
1942
Bambi (USA: David Hand, 1942: 70 mins)
Zipes, Jack. "Bambi Isn't About What You Think Its About." Ideas (December 15, 2021) ["Most of us think we know the story of Bambi—but do we? The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest (Princeton UP, 2022) is an all-new, illustrated translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers’ images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film—an idealized look at a fawn who represents nature’s innocence—which was based on a 1928 English translation of a novel by the Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten. This masterful new translation gives contemporary readers a fresh perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator. Originally published in 1923, Salten’s story is more somber than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes’s introduction traces the history of the book’s reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life—as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution. With captivating drawings by award-winning artist Alenka Sottler, The Original Bambi captures the emotional impact and rich meanings of a celebrated story."]
The Eternal Jew (Germany: Fritz Hippler, 1942: 62 mins)
Presner, Todd. German 59: Holocaust in Film and Literature (2010 UCLA course posted on Youtube: February 10, 2010)
The Glass Key (USA: Stuart Heisler, 1942: 85 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "The Veronica Lake Effect." Acidemic #7 (2012)
The Great Love (Germany: Rolf Hansen, 1942: 102 mins)
Brockmann, Stephen. "Die grofse Liebe (1942) or Love and War." A Critical History of German Film Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010: 167-179. [Professor has copy of the book]
I Married a Witch (USA: René Clair, 1942: 77 mins)
Longworth, Karina. "Veronica Lake (Dead Blondes Episode 4)." You Must Remember This (February 20, 2017) ["Veronica Lake had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life -- so how did she end up dead at 50?"]
Japanese Relocation (USA: Milton S. Eisenhower, 1942: 10 mins)
Vimercati, Giovanni. "State of Denial: Japanese Relocation." Reverse Shot (May 16, 2017)
Harvey, Dennis. "Sabu’s Enduring Star Power." Keyframe (January 5, 2014)
The Magnificent Ambersons (USA: Orson Welles, 1942: 88 mins)
White, Mike, et al. "The Magnificent Ambersons Production History." (Posted on Vimeo: 2014) ["Orson Welles's follow-up to Citizen Kane adapted Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer prize-winning novel about industrial progress and the loss of innocence set against a tumultuous family, the Ambersons. Welles infamously lost control of The Magnificent Ambersons before its final release. We'll examine its production, its destruction, and attempts to restore what many consider Welles's forgotten masterpiece."]
Saboteur (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1942: 109 mins)
Rappoport, Mark. "The Empty Screen." Talkhouse (Posted on Youtube: February 7, 2017) ["The screen is a neutral element in the film-going experience. Or is it? It projects dreams but is also the receptacle of our dreams. It’s the vehicle for delivering the image to an audience — but does it also watch the audience at the same time? Is it a complicitous membrane which audience members can penetrate and which interacts with the spectators, despite its seeming passivity? Maybe — to all of the above …"]
Kuersten, Erich. "The Veronica Lake Effect." Acidemic #7 (2012)
To Be or Not to Be (USA: Ernst Lubitsch, 1942: 99 mins)
Marsh, Calum. "Can Humor Be Weaponized? We speak of satire as ‘venomous’ and ‘acerbic,’ but it isn’t the damage it deals that makes it significant." Keyframe (April 10, 2016)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
1943
Above Suspicion (USA: Richard Thorpe, 1943: 90 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
Day of Wrath (Denmark: Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943: 97 mins
Dreyer, Carl Theodor. "Thoughts on My Metier." The Current (August 20, 2001)
Wilkins, Budd. "Birthing Bad: Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist Through the Lens of “Nordic Horror." Acidemic #7 (2012)
Hangmen Also Die! (USA: Fritz Lang, 1943: 134 mins)
Rivas, T.J. "Cinematic Responses to Fascism." Film History and Aesthetics Wiki (A Project of Film 110: Introduction to Film History and Aesthetics at Westminster College)
I Walked with a Zombie (USA: Jacques Tourneur, 1943: 69 mins)
Perhaps the greatest of director Jacques Tourneur’s films for Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie is a loose retelling of Jane Eyre, transposed to the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. Not a zombie film in the Romero sense, but one drawn from the rituals of vodou, its metaphors are disquietingly potent. A film about enslavement and the legacies of colonialism, the suggestiveness of the duo’s earlier Cat People is taken to oblique heights. In constant, critical dialogue with its own exoticism, Tourneur’s astonishingly expressive direction often edges towards abstraction in its uncanny diagnoses of its tropical maladies. – Matthew Thrift
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
Le Corbeau (France: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943: 92 mins)
Hancock, James and Mikhail Karadimov. "Exploring the Dark Side with Henri-Georges Clouzot." The Wrong Reel #274 (June 1, 2017)
Shadow of a Doubt (USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1943: 108 mins)
"Director Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ – ‘Psycho’ – ‘The Birds’." Sound on Sight #309 (February 29, 2012)
Starr, Elana Rose. "Alfred Hitchcock: Auteur Filmmaker." Villanova University (ND)
1944
Cobra Woman (USA: Robert Siodmak, 1944: 71 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #7: The Shadow." Acidemic (March 8, 2012)
Gaslight (USA: George Cukor, 1944: 114 mins)
Dahl, Nel. "The Handmaiden by Gaslight: Park Chan-wook’s gothic female-vengeance drama owes a debt to George Cukor." Keyframe (October 19, 2016)
Hudson, David. "Sex in the Movies." Green Cine (2005)
Laura (USA: Otto Preminger, 1944: 88 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
Meet Me in St Louis (USA: Vincent Minelli, 1944: 113 mins)
Collier, Stuart, Brian Risselada and Tom Sutpen. "Vincente Minnelli: The Beginning (1943-1948)." Illusion Travels by Streetcar #18 (June 12, 2014)
Ray, Robert B. "Meet Me in St Louis." The ABCs of Classic Hollywood. NY: Oxford UP, 2008: 245-328.
National Velvet (USA: Clarence Brown, 1944: 123 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #3: The Animus." Acidemic (February 1, 2012)
1945
I Know Where I Am Going (United Kingdom: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945: 91 mins)
Smith, Imogen Sara. "The Music of Words: Storytelling in Two Powell & Pressburger Films." Bright Lights Film Journal #79 (February 2013)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1945: 59 mins)
Vahdani, Alireza. "The effects of Kabuki on Akira Kurosawa’s Auteurism, Pt 1." and Part 2 Offscreen (October 31, 2010)
Mildred Pierce (USA: Michael Curtiz, 1945: 111 mins)
D., Margo and Margo P. "Mildred Pierce by J.M. Cain and Starring Joan Crawford." Book vs Movie (April 14, 2017)
Longworth, Karina. "Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)." You Must Remember This (August 29, 2016) ["Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood."]
Rome Open City (Italy: Roberto Rossellini, 1945: 103 mins)
Rossellini, Isabella. "Rome Open City." Film Forum (September 17, 2014) ["(1945) Rome, winter 1943: as screeching-tired Gestapo dragnets blanket the “open city,” Resistance leader Marcello Pagliero escapes from his apartment by running across the rooftops (as did co-screenwriter Sergio Amidei in real life), as pregnant widow Anna Magnani prepares for her wedding, parish priest Aldo Fabrizi uses the “frying pan method” to hide the local boys’ bomb brigade’s hardware, and effete Major Harry Feist riffles through his collection of incriminating ID photos – but betrayal, a broad-daylight machine-gunning, a Partisan ambush, blowtorch torture, and death by firing squad loom… Based on actual people and all-too-recent incidents (Magnani’s electrifying final scene was inspired by her enraged pursuit of her boyfriends’s escape by truck); written in a week in Federico Fellini’s kitchen (the only place with heat); shot on a number of the real locations, and cast mainly with non-pros (Fabrizi and second-choice Magnani were already famous, albeit for comedy), Open City’s documentary look and still hair-raising violence rocked audiences and critics around the world, making Neo-Realism, Rossellini, and Magnani world-famous, sharing the top prize at Cannes, and running twenty-one consecutive months at a single New York cinema. For years seen only in beat-up copies with hopelessly inadequate subtitles, this new restoration conveys the full meaning (and even the humor) of the dialogue for the very first time."]
1946
The Best Years of Our Lives (USA: William Wyler, 1946: 172 mins)
Kinder, Bill. "When Soldiers Come Home in the Movies: The post-war experience as told in tropes." Keyframe (November 11, 2015)
Duel in the Sun (USA: King Vidor, 1946: 144 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
Gilda (USA: Charles Vidor, 1946: 110 mins)
Hudson, David. "Sex in the Movies." Green Cine (2005)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
The Jolson Story (USA: Alfred E. Green, 1946: 128 mins)
Naremore, James. "Film Acting and the Arts of Imitation." Cyncos 27.2 (2011) ["Louise Brooks once said that in order to become a star, an actor needs to combine a natural-looking behavior with personal “eccentricity.” My presentation will explore some of the analytical problems raised by this phenomenon: What constitutes eccentricity and how is it balanced by naturalness in specific cases? What happens when a movie star acts in a film in which he or she impersonates the eccentricities of another star (Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Clint Eastwood as John Huston, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, etc.)? How can we distinguish between impersonation as caricature and impersonation as dramatic illusion? What is the difference, if any, between impersonation and stylistic influence?"]
Jones, Kent. "To Tell the Truth: Let There Be Light." Reverse Shot (June 22, 2003)
The Murderers are Among Us (Germany: Wolfgang Staudte, 1946: 85 mins)
Brockmann, Stephen. "Die Mörder sind unter uns (1946): The Rubble Film." A Critical History of German Film Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010: 196-210. [Professor has copy of the book]
The Living Dead (BBC: Adam Curtis, 1995: three 60 minute episodes) ["The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past is a series of films that investigate the way that history and memory (both national and individual) have been manipulated and distorted by politicians and others for various means of control."]
My Darling Clementine (USA: John Ford, 1946: 97 mins)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
Night and Day (USA: Michael Curtiz, 1946: 128 mins)
Heldt, Guido. Music and Levels of Narration in Film. Intellect, 2013. ["This is the first book-length study of the narratology of film music, and an indispensable resource for anyone researching or studying film music or film narratology. It surveys the so far piecemeal discussion of narratological concepts in film music studies, and tries to (cautiously) systematize them, and to expand and refine them with reference to ideas from general narratology and film narratology (including contributions from German-language literature less widely known in Anglophone scholarship). The book goes beyond the current focus of film music studies on the distinction between diegetic and nondiegetic music (music understood to be or not to be part of the storyworld of a film), and takes into account different levels of narration: from the extrafictional to ‘focalizations’ of subjectivity, and music’s many and complex movements between them."]
"Notorious: Hitchcock's Mature and Intricate Espionage Masterpiece." Cinephilia and Beyond (August 2016)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (USA: Lewis Milestone, 1946: 114 mins)
Bastién, Angelica Jade. "The Feminine Grotesque #5: Lilith’s Heir – On The Strange Love of Martha Ivers." Vague Visages (March 18, 2016)
The Stranger (USA: Orson Welles, 1946: 115 mins)
Barker, Jennifer Lynne. The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection. Routledge, 2013. [Get through interlibrary loan]
Callow, Simon. "Orson Welles." The Cinema Show (July 15, 2016) [Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane and respected police captain Hank Quinlan, both were men tempted by darkness and both were played by Orson Welles at opposite ends of his career. Actor, writer and director Simon Callow joins Ben Rylan for an extended interview in which they unpick the many myths surrounding one of cinema’s greatest talents.]
Pattison, Michael. "Gestures: Orson Welles’ The Stranger." Keyframe (February 14, 2014) ["What we can learn from Orson Welles and Edward G. Robinson about the art of keeping up appearances."]
Three Strangers (USA: Jean Negulesco, 1946: 92 mins)
Labuza, Peter and Farran Smith Nehme. "Three Strangers." The Cinephiliacs #6 (October 21, 2012)
1947
Black Narcissus (UK: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947: 100 mins)
Harvey, Dennis. "Sabu’s Enduring Star Power." Keyframe (January 5, 2014)
Jones, Kent. "Black Narcissus: Empire of the Senses." The Current (July 19, 2010) ["It is always tempting to uncouple the unearthly visual beauty and formal control of a Powell and Pressburger film from its psychological exactitude—and that urge is built into the films themselves. The characters (and the audience) are always on the brink of being overwhelmed by beauty, the beauty of the world on the one hand and of art on the other, which holds the impossible but ever present promise of a permanently heightened state. At the same time, however, the action is always firmly anchored in the fallacies and disturbances and longings of being human. We get the lure of beauty and its potentially dangerous effect at the same time. For instance, Powell’s remarkable precision with distances and angles of perception is as elegant and ingenious here as it is in all his great work, particularly the continued refrain of looking down—Kerr’s Sister Clodagh surveying the sisters gathered at the dinner table or, in a reverie, fixating on her grandmother’s footstool back in Ireland; Sabu’s Young General gazing down at Simmons’s Kanchi; Byron’s Sister Ruth spying from a series of heights within the open corridors of the newly christened convent on Sister Clodagh and her interactions with Mr. Dean; each of the sisters in turn contemplating the distant valley below. This insistence on up-down relationships (a constant in Powell’s work) gives the film a musical development akin to a slowly evolving theme or pattern and results in “mental images” as lasting as Hitchcock’s point-of-view shots. The moment when the screen goes red, as Sister Ruth passes out, is a startling reiteration of a powerful visual idea, but it may also be a representation of a genuine neurological phenomenon known as a “redout,” as Diane Broadbent Friedman postulates in her fascinating book on A Matter of Life and Death and its probable origins in real neuroscience."]
Daisy Kenyon (USA: Otto Preminger, 1947: 99 mins)
Longworth, Karina. "Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)." You Must Remember This (August 29, 2016) ["Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood."]
Miracle on 34th Street (USA: George Seaton, 1947: 96 mins)
El Goro. "It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947)." Talk Without Rhythm #397 (December 6, 2017)
Doherty, Thomas. "Out of the Past." The Cinephiliacs #79 (May 15, 2016)
Quai des Orfèvres (France: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947: 106 mins)
Hancock, James and Mikhail Karadimov. "Exploring the Dark Side with Henri-Georges Clouzot." The Wrong Reel #274 (June 1, 2017)
1948
3 Godfathers (USA: John Ford, 1948: 106 mins)
Freedman, Carl. "Post-Hetrosexuality: John Wayne and the Construction of American
Masculinity." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has a copy]
A Foreign Affair (USA: Billy Wilder, 1948: 116 mins)
Carr, Jeremy. "Rubble Romance: A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948)." Senses of Cinema #94 (Spring 2020)
Riley, Christina. "Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair: Marlene Dietrich's Star Persona and American Interventionist Strategies in Postwar Berlin." Bright Lights Film Journal #76 (May 2012)
Bicycle Thieves (Italy: Vittorio De Sica, 1948: 93 mins)
LoBrutto, Vincent. "Italian Neorealism: The Bicycle Thief." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 33-38. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]
Mooney, James. "Bicycle Thieves." Film and Philosophy (March 8, 2013)
Drunken Angel (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1948: 98 mins)
Hogg, Trevor. "Epic Dreamer: An Akira Kurosawa Profile." Flickering Myth (March 24, 2010)
Fort Apache (USA: John Ford, 1948: 125 mins)
Freedman, Carl. "Post-Hetrosexuality: John Wayne and the Construction of American Masculinity." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has a copy]
Kehr, Dave. "How the West Was Filled With Loss." The New York Times (March 25, 2012)
Oliver Twist (UK: David Lean, 1948: 105 mins)
Ferguson, Susan. "Capitalist Childhood in Film: Modes of Critique." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Portrait of Jennie (USA: William Dieterle, 1948: 86 mins)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #2: The Anima." Acidemic (January 29, 2012)
The Red Shoes (UK: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948: 134 mins)
Bird, Daniel, Maitland McDonagh and Mike White. "The Red Shoes (1948)." The Projection Booth #319 (April 20, 2017) ["The film centers on the tumultuous world of dance, namely ballet. We follow Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) through triumphs and misfortunes. A favorite of Martin Scorsese, the film is a triumph of melodrama and includes several breathtaking dance sequences, most notably an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes."]
Ruthless (USA: Edgar G. Ulmer, 1948: 104 mins)
Isenberg, Noah. "Ruthless." The Cinephiliacs #31 (January 19, 2014)
Van Gogh (France: Alain Resnais, 1948: 20 mins)
Cook, Adam. "Vincent Van Gogh In Cinema: A multilayered portrait emerges." Keyframe (May 22, 2016)
1949
Biesen, Sheri Chinen. "Flags à la Noir: Reframing Patriotism in the Post-War Films of Fred Zinnemann." Film Criticism 44.3 (2019)
The Heiress (USA: William Wyler, 1949: 115 mins)
Donegan, Moira. "Does That Humiliate You?: The Heiress" N + 1 (February 12, 2014)
I Shot Jesse James (USA: Samuel Fuller, 1949: 81 mins)
Anthony, West, David Blakeslee and Robert Nishimura. "The First Films of Samuel Fuller." The Eclipse Viewer #4 (October 24, 2012)
Jour de Fete." (France: Jacques Tati, 1949: 70 mins)
Ross, Kristin. "Jacques Tati, Historian." Current (October 30, 2014)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (UK: Robert Hamer, 1949: 106 mins)
Clarko, Clarko and Daniel Tiger. "Kind Hearts and Coronets." Cinema Gadfly (August 2015)
Le Silence de la Mer (France: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1949: 87 mins)
Lane, Anthony. "Jean-Pierre Melville's Cinema of Resistance." The New Yorker (May 1, 2017) ["His films are illuminated by what he saw when France was ruled by oppression and ordinary people had to decide what, or whom, they would obey."]
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (USA: John Ford, 1949: 103 mins)
Freedman, Carl. "Post-Hetrosexuality: John Wayne and the Construction of American Masculinity." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has a copy]
Stray Dog (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1949: 122 mins)
Hogg, Trevor. "Epic Dreamer: An Akira Kurosawa Profile." Flickering Myth (March 24, 2010)
Under Capricorn (UK: Alfred Hitchcock, 1949: 117 mins)
Anderson, Barry, et al. "The Unedited Commentary Track: Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock; 1949)." Illusion Travels by Streetcar #101 (April 24, 2016)
Whiskey Galore (UK: Alexander Mackendrick, 1949: 80 mins)
Hancock, James and Steven Saunders. "The Cinema of Alexander Mackendrick." Wrong Reel #314 (September 2017)
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