Tragedy for the purposes of this list does not mean films that are very sad. Rather the films selected explore themes associated with Greek and sometime Shakespearian Tragedy. Throughout this list, philosophers and theorists of the tragic have been cited. This use of theory to discern what is properly tragic is controversial. Raymond Williams for […]
I’m beginning to think that the late Swedish director Ingmar Bergman gets a bad rap. Mention the idea of watching one of his films and many otherwise reasonable, intelligent people head for the hills. The presumption is that the experience will be slow, laborious, depressing. If there were such a thing as cinematic paint, you’d […]
To mark this month’s fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles’ ninth album, “The Beatles”—universally known as the White Album—several new expanded and enhanced editions are being released this week. These new versions were created under the supervision of Giles Martin, the son of the album’s original producer, George Martin. As was done last year with “Sgt. Pepper,” the […]
Claude Debussy died a century ago, but his music has not grown old. Bound only lightly to the past, it floats in time. As it coalesces, bar by bar, it appears to be improvising itself into being—which is the effect Debussy wanted. After a rehearsal of his orchestral suite “Images,” he said, with satisfaction, “This […]
“We’ve been doing new tracks that are really fantastic and we’ve just been getting into them,” Jimi Hendrix told Rolling Stone in February 1968, right after he and the Experience had played San Francisco’s Fillmore West. “You have these songs in your mind. You want to hurry up and get back to the things you were doing in the […]
It is in the interest of any aspiring filmmaker to strive for originality in storytelling, above all else. Cinema is an art form in which no single iteration of a story formula is truly unique. Hence, it is up to the filmmakers to find new and expressive ways to tell stories that are otherwise anything […]
Psychedelic drug inspired their masterpiece – but also opened wounds that never healed The story of Revolver began in a night of hell and illumination. “We’ve had LSD,” John Lennon told George Harrison. It was spring 1965. Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, and Harrison and his wife, Pattie Boyd, were attending a dinner at the London home of dentist John Riley […]
It’s amazing to think of the vast methods one can use to structure a story. Depending on the narrative itself, you could distort the structure any way you deem necessary, considering the structure enhances the story. Whatever structure the writer decides upon, all good stories fundamentally follow the basic three-act structure. From then on there’s […]