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Jan. 13th, 2006 09:23 pmOn Wednesday night I was watching the film "The Double Life of Veronique", and I thought it was great. The film was directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski and starred Irene Jacob as two young women, one Polish and one French, who lead strangely similar lives and seem to have a very strong connection, despite the fact that they have never actually met. Visually the film is startling, with a very striking use of colour, yellow, red, amber, and green predominate. The plot line is seemingly quite simple but there are many levels in the film. It's not all explained in the end, and I think it will be one that can be watched many times an always reveal something different. it was on again late the followign night and I taped it because I wanted a copy to keep and for some reason it's not out on DVD.
I went to the first night of the "Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock" course. Basically we were introduced to some of the themes in Hitchcock's films (mainly guilt and voyeurism) and some of his techniques, as well as whether he is worthy of study. There was a lot in the lecture about his importance with the influential critics of the French magazine "Cahirs du Cinema" (many of whom became celebrated film-makers themselves such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut who wrote a book-length interview with Hitchcock, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol) and who developed the 'auteur' theory which states that just as a book has a writer, a piece of music has a composer and a painting has a painter, so to does a film have just one creator or 'author' and that author is the director -no matter what contribution is made by the screenwriter, actors, producers, camarapeople, editor, cinematographer or anyone else. the theory was very popular with a lot of the American directors of the 1970s but has since fallen out of favour. We saw clips from several films, "Young and Innocent", "Notorious", "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1950s remake), "The Birds", "Saboteur", "North by Northwest", "Shadow of a Doubt" and the very funny trailer for "Psycho" (which is basically Hitchcock giving a guided tour of the Bate Motel and gleefully describing the murders).
I was in work for ten hours today. One of the important computer systems was taken down but the IT department didn't bother to tell anyone they were doing it and no-one was pleased. That job drives me crazy at times. The film "Nightbreed" is on television tonight. That was one of the first horror films I ever saw at the age of 12. it was very badly cut by the studios. I remember seeing the film's writer and director Clive Barker at a book signing once and someone asked him: "What is the most frightening experience you have ever had?" and Barker replied: "The editing process on 'Nightbreed'".
I went to the first night of the "Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock" course. Basically we were introduced to some of the themes in Hitchcock's films (mainly guilt and voyeurism) and some of his techniques, as well as whether he is worthy of study. There was a lot in the lecture about his importance with the influential critics of the French magazine "Cahirs du Cinema" (many of whom became celebrated film-makers themselves such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut who wrote a book-length interview with Hitchcock, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol) and who developed the 'auteur' theory which states that just as a book has a writer, a piece of music has a composer and a painting has a painter, so to does a film have just one creator or 'author' and that author is the director -no matter what contribution is made by the screenwriter, actors, producers, camarapeople, editor, cinematographer or anyone else. the theory was very popular with a lot of the American directors of the 1970s but has since fallen out of favour. We saw clips from several films, "Young and Innocent", "Notorious", "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1950s remake), "The Birds", "Saboteur", "North by Northwest", "Shadow of a Doubt" and the very funny trailer for "Psycho" (which is basically Hitchcock giving a guided tour of the Bate Motel and gleefully describing the murders).
I was in work for ten hours today. One of the important computer systems was taken down but the IT department didn't bother to tell anyone they were doing it and no-one was pleased. That job drives me crazy at times. The film "Nightbreed" is on television tonight. That was one of the first horror films I ever saw at the age of 12. it was very badly cut by the studios. I remember seeing the film's writer and director Clive Barker at a book signing once and someone asked him: "What is the most frightening experience you have ever had?" and Barker replied: "The editing process on 'Nightbreed'".
