The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the audacity of the earliest filmmakers

Somehow, a silent film managed to include a false framing device that serves to mislead the viewer and set up a twist ending straight out of a modern movie, a love triangle, a flashback within a flashback, multiple murders, a murder investigation with a falsely accused suspect, an abduction, and more. Over a century after… Continue reading The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the audacity of the earliest filmmakers

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