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Film Persona

A introspective on the directorial work of cinema's most renowned directors.

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The purposes of this blog is simply to deep dive into selected works of cinema's greatest directors. I select a director and watch 10 of his best pieces, then I create a post describing what makes the piece great.

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Bitter Rice (1949)

Giuseppe De Santis' "Bitter Rice" Perhaps one of the more melodramatic Italian neo-realist films I've ever seen is Giuseppe De Santis' " Bitter Rice ." Despite its melodrama, the film is completely in line with the themes typical with neo-realist cinema. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring his wife Silvana Mangano, the film would go on to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, nominated for Best Story at the 1950 Academy Awards, and is included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." " Bitter Rice " centers on Francesca and Walter, two small-time thieves who must hide from the law among the crowds of female rice workers working in the Po Valley. Francesca joins the workers and meets the overtly sexual and beautiful Silvana, who attempts to steal the alrea...

Quai des Orfevres (1947)

Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Quai des Orfevres" 1947's " Quai des Orfevres " was Henri-Georges Clouzot's first directorial effort after his controversial 1943 film " Le Corbeau ." Clouzot had been banned from filmmaking by the French government for his collaboration with a German film studio financing " Le Corbeau ." However, many didn't quite make the thematic connections with " Le Corbeau "'s anti-Nazi sentiment and felt that the film was critiquing France itself. One Clouzot's ban was lifted, he decided to adapt Stanislas-Andre Steeman's 1942 novel " L'egitime defense ." Clouzot's film focuses on a married couple, Maurice Martineau and his theater performing wife, Jenny Lamour. After Jenny becomes acquainted with a sleazy businessman, Brignon, who promises her a film deal, the jealous Maurice goes to Brignon's home to kill him only to find him already dead. A police procedure initiated...

Oliver Twist (1948)

David Lean's "Oliver Twist" After the success of David Lean's 1946 adaption of Charles Dickens classic 1861 novel " Great Expectations ," Lean decided once again to adapt a classic work by Dickens. This time, his focus was on the 1837 novel, " Oliver Twist ." His 1948 adaptation once again proved that Lean was able to take Dicken's classic work and visualize it for the big screen. Centering on a young orphan boy in 19th century England, " Oliver Twist " details the boy's plight as he is hired out as an apprentice after asking a cruel taskmaster for a second serving of gruel. Falling in with a street urchin and a criminal, the boy's fate between wealth and poverty hangs in the balance when his kindly benefactor decides to take him in. From all of the Charles Dickens adaptations I have seen, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a fan of Dicken's work. I know, blasphemous. From " Great Expectations " to ...