Film Persona

  Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus" When I think of "classic Hollywood," I instantly think of 1950s era technicolor musicals and long, historical epics. One thing that comes to mind is the 1960 film " Spartacus ." While it's significance is steeped in Hollywood lore as one of the pinnacles of the era, many others will point to it as Stanley Kubrick's big "studio" film. Others will remember it as one of most successful and awarded films of Hollywood blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. Kirk Douglas stars as the titular slave, whom leads a rebellion against the tyrannical Roman Empire. Along the win, he wins the hearts and affection of the oppressed, while earning the disdain of Laurence Olivier's Crassus. It's a tragedy that sees its hero become a symbol for the downtrodden. While the classic moment of "I am Spartacus" did send goosebumps up my arm, I felt that the film on the whole was a lackluster experience for me. I recognize i...

  Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night" Francois Truffaut's 1973 film " Day for Night " can best be described as a 'celebration of filmmaking,' if you want to be lazy about it. While it does pull back the curtain to 'filmmaking' and gets the rocks off of every film major wanting to turn professional, " Day for Night " certainly provokes thoughts on cinema's importance or lack thereof. One thing it certainly did was signify the definitive ending to one of cinema's greatest partnerships. Jean-Luc Godard and Truffaut had a dynamic partnership starting out at Cahiers du Cinema , where they worked together studying filmmaking and writing reviews. They collaborated in writing Godard's first film, " Breathless ," and are endlessly compared to one another due to their personas as spearheading the New Wave movement. However, at the end of the 1960s, both the New Wave movement and their perspectives on life and film began ...

  Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" After completing his 1966 masterwork " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ," Sergio Leone had intended to make no more Westerns. After all, how could you top that? Paramount, however, believed Leone could - which is why they offered him an enormous sum to direct another Western. This was not what won Leone over, however. It was their inclusion of Henry Fonda's contract - Leone's favorite actor - that sealed the deal.  Leone put together a writing team, comprised of Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento (who would go on to be filmmakers in their own right). The three of them spent much of 1967 doing nothing but watching American Westerns - " High Noon ," " The Iron Horse ," and " The Searchers " just to name a few. The story they came up with was entirely references to these classic and popular Westerns. This kept to the spirit of Leone's previous films, looking through the myth...

  Jacques Becker's "Le Trou" What I didn't know when I sat down to watch 1960's " Le Trou " was that the film's director, Jacques Becker, had passed away from lung cancer only weeks after shooting had wrapped. It is such a shame for the French master to have died so young, as his works up until this point were among the best from the 'tradition of quality,' as the lads from ' Cahiers du Cinema ' called it. I'm curious how Becker would have responded to the New Wave period, as its artists - like Godard and Truffaut - were influenced by him and his work, particularly 1952's " Casque d'or ."  " Le Trou " is a film about a group of prisoners and their meticulous attempt at escape. The story is based on a book, which is based on a true story. The true story was something Becker had read about in a newspaper back in 1947. After Jose Giovanni had adapted that true story into a novel, 1957's " The Brea...

  Francois Truffaut's "Two English Girls" Francois Truffaut's second commercial failure, after 1963's " The Soft Skin ," was his 1971 film " Two English Girls ." Personally, I understand the lack of enthusiasm for the film, given that I feel its affects are as comparable as " The Soft Skin ," which I found moderate-to-middling. I could tell " Two English Girls " was an adaption from a novel, given the story framework that Truffaut uses. However, I couldn't quite connect myself to his rendition of these characters as much as I do in his other films. " Two English Girls " continues his collaboration with Jean-Pierre Leaud in a role that Leaud seems to flourish in under Truffaut's hand. The 'role' being a young adult man fumbling and middling his way through awkward and uncertain romances. In this case, he plays Claude, whom juggles back-and-forth romances between two English girls over the course of s...

  Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" In sitting down to watch " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ," the notion of having already watched it twice before had not been lost on me. It was something that had always been on TV all my life and there had been multiple occasions in which I acquired a DVD copy of the film for my own personal viewing. However, it also occurred to me that despite having watched the film before, I never truly actually paid attention to it. It felt like I was watching the film for the very first time. Some plot point had been known to me, but the characters' intentions, their adventures through the Civil War-touched Western landscape, and their ultimate goal unraveled before like a brand new day. I knew instantly that I had always taken advantage of the film and its universal comfort. " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly " is the third and final film in a Leone's trilogy centering on Clint Eastwood's unnamed tra...

  Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" While " Persona " may be a shining, monolithic beacon in the discography of Ingmar Bergman, 1972's " Cries and Whispers " certainly comes close to equaling its greatness. Now fully in his color period, specifically using Eastman coloring for this effort, Bergman takes advantage of color to its fully affect. He infuses the film with the color crimson, giving the film a gothic quality somehow (despite crimson being completely oppositional to darker, more gothic colors).  The reason for this gothic texture stems from the film's themes of terminality. After all, the film centers around two sisters (and a maidservant) who must witness the excruciating and slow death of their beloved sister, Agnes. During these tragic moments, the sisters must reconcile with their own profound suffering, along with the irreparable fractures between them.  While death certainly is THE theme of the film, " Cries and Whispers...