The Killing and the early genius of Stanley Kubrick

Roger Ebert asked, “It’s tempting to search here for themes and a style he would return to in his later masterpieces, but...Seeing it without his credit, would you guess it was by Kubrick?”  On the surface, the answer is self-evidently no, but to a more critical eye, we can see the early signs of an… Continue reading The Killing and the early genius of Stanley Kubrick

Fellini’s 8½ and whether or not reality matters in either art or life itself

Much like music, a great film can exist purely on an emotional level, as a stream of loosely related and structured consciousness that teases us with symbolism, impenetrable to a complete analysis, and yet filled with meaning all the same. Federico Fellini’s 1963 surrealistic fantasy about a film director struggling with his love life and… Continue reading Fellini’s 8½ and whether or not reality matters in either art or life itself