We are used to seeing frightening things appear very suddenly in film,…
Category: Defining Moments in Film
“Bang Bang”: Performance and Trope in Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
There is one absolute certainty in Quentin Tarantino’s two volume Kill Bill…
“It’s Time I Look Them Up, Before I’m in a Box Myself”: Objects and Disruption in Amélie (2001)
Amélie finds beauty in witnessing the way objects impact people. She is…
“The Tyranny of an Object”: Technology and Representation in Blade Runner (1982) and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”
“The tyranny of an object… it doesn’t know I exist”…
“We’ll Always Have Paris”: The Greatest Close-Up in Cinema and the “La Marseillaise” Scene in Casablanca (1942)
Film is a form of propaganda. It’s designed to make you feel…
“And They Knew Each Other”: Detection, Intent, and Realization in Silence of the Lambs (1991)
A good murder mystery requires audience participation. Murder mystery films consist of…
Inside Versus Out: How to Construct a Defining Moment in Film and in Character
Intro for the Week(s) Sometimes the moments which define a character are…
Bars on the Window: Deconstructing the Crown in Basquiat (1996)
I once heard that there is no use talking about art. Someone…
“Give Him a Mask and He’ll Tell You the Truth”: The Life and Death Of Ziggy in Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Biopics tread in blasphemy. There is something impossible about trying to recreate…
“We Could Have Been Friends?”: The Legacy of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Feud (2017)
Feuds are never one sided or provoked by just one event. They…