This is saying a lot, since trailers blow these days. Hell, I've been waiting literally TWO DECADES for movie previews to change. Finally, there's a glint of light on the horizon. Each of these pieces signal inventive new voices in movie marketing--SMART voices, finally:
Intriguing. THE TREE OF LIFE (Terrence Malick, 2011)
Chilling. RED STATE (Kevin Smith, 2011)
Moving. BLUE VALENTINE (Derek Cianfrance, 2010)
Funny. SUPER (James Gunn, 2011)
Exciting. SUPER 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)
Intriguing. THE TREE OF LIFE (Terrence Malick, 2011)
Chilling. RED STATE (Kevin Smith, 2011)
Moving. BLUE VALENTINE (Derek Cianfrance, 2010)
Funny. SUPER (James Gunn, 2011)
Exciting. SUPER 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)
Hitchcock Reexamined, All At Once
I was alerted to this TRULY amazing bit of cinema academia via movie geek extraordinaire Ron Salvatore on Facebook. Here, courtesy of the fantastically talentedultraculture, we have 30 murder scenes from the films of Alfred Hitchcock, all synched up perfectly (and all climaxing with the requisite death knells). Their sound, images and especially their editing rhythms clash wonderfully on one screen (notice how the speed of the edits increase as the piece goes along; and just look at the latter-day infusion of color--with one Psycho black-and-white blip). I've truly never seen anything like this---it's utter brilliance through and through. I could seriously watch it a hundred times; it represents the purest, and most accurate and innovative, of film studies. The ending gives me more chills than does the actual sampled film (the nevertheless legendary Strangers on a Train)!
Cinema Gallery: 200 MORE Movie Images: DARKNESS (Part 3 of 5)
I have to admit: I love a blackened frame. These are some of my favorite hard-to-see moments from movies. I think I love the dark on film because that's where we can catch the most abstract images, if only for a brief moment. By the way, I just want to be clear: these are actual frame grabs and, in that way, they are completely unique. I say this only because these image-only posts of mine might seem slight, but they actually take me MUCH longer to compose than any literary efforts I make on this site. In other words, this stuff ain't easy, guys. Anyway, click on the images to see them in their fullness.
Miss Lowell is banked by a coupla goons in The Big Combo. (Joseph H. Lewis, 55)
Loretta Lynn singing "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," from Coal Miner's Daughter 2. (Patrick Flynn, 94)
The Bride sends one of the Crazy 88s to the blood-spattered floor in Kill Bill (Volume One). (Quentin Tarentino, 2003)
Rooftop fight from The Racket. (John Cromwell et al., 51)
Meshes of the Afternoon. (Maya Deren, 43)
Mike Hammer makes a foe's switchblade drop in Kiss Me, Deadly. (Robert Aldrich, 55)
The hidden gun. Dog Day Afternoon. (Sidney Lumet, 76)
Dead man walking in The Man Who Was Not There. (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2001)
Stalking. Made in Britain. (Alan Clarke, 82)
A flashlight barely sheds light on the case of The Thin Man. (W.S. Van Dyke, 34)
Cliff Robertson in Obsession. (Brian De Palma, 76)
Just one mighty hiss scares the bad guys away in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.(Tim Burton, 85)
Daniel Plainview, squenched and baptized in oil, as his partner drowns in the stuff. There Will Be Blood. (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Illusion. Black Ice. (Stan Brakhage, 94)
Talking and working, down in The Hole. (John and Faith Hubley, 62)
Jesse assures an untrustworthy friend is dead in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (Andrew Dominick, 2007)
A frug, starring Sal Mineo, from Who Killed Teddy Bear? (Joseph Cates, 65)
Sidney Falco recognizes his complicity in evil. Sweet Smell of Success.(Alexander Mackendrick, 57)
The opening image from Star Wars. (George Lucas, 77)
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. (Joe Layton, 82)
Her daughter points towards Heaven in The Rapture. (Michael Tolkin, 91)
The title character cries and prays for her mother's return in Ponette. (Jacques Doillon, 96)
Safe as a church. Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
Salina, left alone by the tree for the night in A Patch of Blue. (Guy Green, 65)
The daughter comes alive again--sort of--in Night of the Living Dead. (George A. Romero, 68)
Eve's preparation for suicide in Interiors. (Woody Allen, 78)
Pip runs right home at the beginning of Great Expectations. (David Lean, 46)
"Go ahead, Melly. Scream all you want." Gone With The Wind. (Victor Fleming et al., 39)
"Come on out, you bastard." The Entity. (Sidney J. Furie, 81)
A black man struggles for survival in the white man's army. The Dirty Dozen.(Robert Aldrich, 67)
Daniel watches his biggest mistake in Defending Your Life. (Albert Brooks, 90)
As Cool Hand Luke is whipped out in the yard, his fans and fellow prisoners respond. (Stuart Rosenberg, 67)
The fat man steps outside in the rain for a shower in Carny. (Robert Kaylor, 80)
Max Cady as upside-down, inside-out, black-is-white horror in Cape Fear.(Martin Scorsese, 91)
Boris Karloff in Black Sabbath. (Mario Bava, Salvatore Billitteri, 64)
A general ponders his next move in Black Hawk Down. (Ridley Scott, 2001)
A high for Charlie Parker in Bird. (Clint Eastwood, 88)
Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat in All The President's Men. (Alan J. Pakula, 76)
Modern man touches the future. 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
John Doe's most intimate thoughts, in black and white, from Se7en. (David Fincher, 95)








































Cinema Gallery: 200 MORE Movie Images, Part 2 of 5
For my 300th post on filmicability, I present the second part of my newest Cinema Gallery collection. As always, click on the photo to see it writ large.
Punk rock arrives in American Pop. (Ralph Bakshi, 81)
One unhappy army recruitment center. Drive, He Said. (Jack Nicholson, 71)
The chilling final image from Blue Collar. (Paul Schrader, 78)
The wrecked bus is raised to the heavens in The Sweet Hereafter. (Atom Egoyan, 97)
A Christmas Eve upchucking for Bad Santa. (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)
A dead platoon returns to confront their leader in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.(Akira Kurosawa, 90)
"Three Little Maids From School." Topsy-Turvy. (Mike Leigh, 99)
A shot from the outrageous Super 8mm camera commercial in I'll Never Forget What's'isname. (Michael Winner, 67)
"Smile. SMILE!" Blow-Up. (Michelangelo Antonioni, 66)
A hobo's nest in Sullivan's Travels. (Preston Sturges, 41)
A "victim" is taunted in Freeway. (Matthew Bright, 96)
The very definition of utter panic in Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, 80)
A boy teeters on a high-rise ledge in Antichrist. (Lars Von Trier, 2009)













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