Film
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Come Away With Me
After the publication of Gomorrah, a journalistic and autobiographical work that focused on and infuriated Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate, author Roberto Saviano entered into 24 hour protective surveillance and a life of restricted freedom. In his new politically charged television…
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“Self-absorption is general, as is self-doubt.”
An essay from 1979 by Joan Didion about the work of Woody Allen. (via TheMillions)
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The Rumpus Review of Stone
If the only thing you’ve seen of the new Robert De Niro/Edward Norton film, Stone, is the trailer, you may feel that your membership in the Robert De Niro Disappointment Club has been justified yet again.
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The Eyeball #39: Bros. Quay, Svankmajer, and McLaren
Last week for my Hugo House class on using experimental films as writing prompts we spent 88 glorious minutes with House, the 1977 Japanese haunted pajama party freak-out directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. This week we puzzled ourselves with three stop-motion…
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10/40/70 #27: Shadow of a Doubt
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 Shadow of a Doubt, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1943):
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Strange Powers
It has been eleven years since The Magnetic Fields released the three-album set 69 Love Songs—with its funny-sad, sarcastic, satirical songs about, well, love songs.
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Notable San Francisco, This Week: 11/8-11/14
This week in San Francisco, The November Monthly Rumpus, art openings at City Hall and White Walls, indie circus goodness and a musical orgy(!) at the Bohemian Carnival, and kinetic visual sculptures meet improvised electroacoustic shamanic noise jazz (don’t worry,…
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Zadie Smith On Her Generation
“When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility. In a way it’s a transcendent experience: we lose our bodies, our messy feelings,…
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The Eyeball #38: HOUSE
Session four of my six-part class on using experimental films as writing prompts commenced last night at Richard Hugo House. In previous weeks we viewed films by Buñuel, Brakhage, and Anger, moving westward from Spain to Colorado to Los Angeles.…
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Tales of Mere Existence: The Art of Lev Yilmaz
Levni Yilmaz is the creator of “Tales of Mere Existence,” a web based series of animated shorts that have evolved into a successful comic.
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Notable San Francisco, This Week: 11/1-11/7
This week in San Francisco, the Booksmith hosts some radical readings, Last Gasp teams up with 111 Minna for a showing of legendary Japanese erotica, SoEx’s Cinema by The Bay, and the Day of the Dead! Monday 11/1: A struggling…
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The Eyeball #37: Kenneth Anger
Are there some films you have to take drugs to enjoy? I asked this question toward the end of this week’s session of the class on experimental films I’m teaching at Richard Hugo House, after spending two hours with the…