Posts by: Nicholas Rombes

You Might Never Find Your Way Back: Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman

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There are other odd, improbable, tenuous connections, as if Hangsaman had a secret way of speaking to (or through) other artifacts beyond its time.

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10/40/70 #37: Marnie

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This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine Marnie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1964):

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Julia Kristeva’s Face

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In the winter of 1989 I had finished my first semester of graduate studies in English at Penn State University and received, in my campus mailbox, the comments from my professors for the “Introduction to Graduate Studies” class.

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The Dark Mystery of Emily Dickinson’s “Master” Letters

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One of the enduring mysteries of American literature is a series of three letters drafted by Emily Dickinson to someone she called “Master.” There is no evidence that he letters—written between 1858 and 1862 and discovered shortly after Dickinson’s death in 1886—were ever sent, although they may have been drafts of versions that were posted. […]

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Nicholas Rombes’s Art Film Roundup #6

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Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2011) has the feel of a slow march through a black swamp. There is a majesty and a tar-pit trap power in the wordless matching of moving images and music. I am obliged to wonder what are the “penalties—very heavy penalties” mentioned in this trailer for Sleeping Beauty (Julia […]

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10/40/70 Contest

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This coming Wednesday, March 30, a new 10/40/70 experimental film column will be published here at The Rumpus. In the spirit of the absurd beauty of spring, if you can identify the film I’ll be writing about from this single frame, e-mail me at nrombes AT hotmail.com with your address and I’ll mail you a […]

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Nicholas Rombes’ Art Film Roundup

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In at least two of his novels, Thomas Pynchon mentions a Porky Pig cartoon from the 1930s. Here is the reference from The Crying of Lot 49 (1965), as Oedipa Maas listens to an old man named Thoth, whose grandfather was an Indian killer: “Did you ever see the one about Porky Pig and the […]

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Nicholas Rombes’ Art Film Roundup

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Speaking of Egypt. The Yacobean Building (2006), directed by Marwan Hamed. The film shifts stunningly and beautifully between hard-core melodrama, sadness, and comedy. There are, eerily, some scenes that seem to predict the uprising against Mubarek.

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Nicholas Rombes’ Art Film Roundup

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Another clip from Polish director Andrzej Zulawski’s masterpiece Possession (1981), starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill. The movie piles on one outrageous, tornado-like scene after another, but it is often the quiet, in-between moments that are more deeply eerie. In this scene such a moment occurs at around 1:50, just after the cars fall off […]

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Nicholas Rombes’ Art Film Roundup

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The 2010 Sundance Film Festival Shorts came through town for a one-night only showing, which I caught earlier this week at the grand old Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. The jury prize winner in international filmmaking, The Six Dollar Fifty Man (New Zealand, 15 minutes) was supposed to be poignant and funny and a little […]

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10/40/70 #29: Duel in the Sun

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This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine Duel in the Sun, directed by King Vidor (1946):

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