Tag: film analysis site

Film, Landscape, Literature

Falconry, H Is For Hawk, and Powell & Pressburger.

After recently finishing Helen Macdonald’s excellent book, H Is For Hawk, a number of connections and synchronicities emerged that all seemed in some way to tie in to its various chapters and ideas.  Whilst many of these were of a more personal, emotional nature, the chief connection of interest lay in the presence of hawks in Powell and Pressburger’s 1944 film, A Canterbury Tale.  This … Continue reading Falconry, H Is For Hawk, and Powell & Pressburger.

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Television

The Urban Wyrd

One of the key criticisms of theories surrounding the genre Folk Horror is its emphasis upon the rural landscape. How can a genre really encompass such rural horror films as Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973) while also discussing more urban-set horrors such as Quatermass and the Pit (1967)? While key works of Folk Horror cinema seem to broadly focus on rural landscapes to set … Continue reading The Urban Wyrd

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Film, Film Music and Sound, Folk Horror

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) – Duality Through Sound and Vision (Part 3).

Part 1. Part 2. Belief And Ritual. The power of belief and its will in the distortion of reality is one of Valerie‘s more crucial cinematic aspects.  This isn’t simply a belief in the sense of a religious doctrine and all of the aesthetics that accompany it, but the moral belief of the main character whose fantasies dictate the narrative ruptures within the film.  However, … Continue reading Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) – Duality Through Sound and Vision (Part 3).

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Film, Folk Horror, Television

Questioning Nostalgia In Folk Horror.

As the Folk Horror canon expands into more forms of media and territory, the Folk Horror Chain becomes less useful as a tool for looking at thematic material.  This is partly due to it being derived as an idea from one medium and one that is explicitly narrative based.  Yet, some of its ideas can be loosely translated into the area of reception studies of … Continue reading Questioning Nostalgia In Folk Horror.

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Film, Landscape

Death and Landscape in Drowning By Numbers (1988) – Peter Greenaway.

In Henry David Thoreau’s influential work, Walden (1854), he speaks of many elements of the natural landscape and the deeper meaning within it.  Tying into the first movement of transcendentalism, Thoreau’s was one of a number of works that sought out inner spirituality within a journey toward the outside.  One quote seems particularly prescient, both in the context of our film of study and in … Continue reading Death and Landscape in Drowning By Numbers (1988) – Peter Greenaway.

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Film, Folk Horror, Television

The Ritual Of Craft In Folk Horror.

With the ideas of the Folk Horror Chain starting to seem incomplete as the sub-genre grows in popularity and is more analysed, it’s about time further facets, themes, ideas and traits were added to the conversation.  This will be the first in a number of pieces about other traits not accounted for or addressed in the initial idea of the chain (which itself was only … Continue reading The Ritual Of Craft In Folk Horror.

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Film, Film Music and Sound, Folk Horror

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) – Duality Through Sound and Vision (Part 1).

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) – Duality Through Sound and Vision. Jaromil Jireš’ Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) is a cornucopia of images and sound.  Its vision is of a complex blossoming of sexuality amidst the visual and thematic realisations of a Freudian dreamscape, driven primarily by the lack of understanding and misinterpretation caused by social naivety.  The narrative rarely ascends to … Continue reading Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970) – Duality Through Sound and Vision (Part 1).

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Television

Fear of the Outsider in Quatermas II

The characters of Nigel Kneale’s work rarely like an outsider. The drama of his plays is often built around small groups of people at odds with some concept of an outsider. The oppositional group will be diametrically opposed for a variety of reasons; sometimes for more pulp tendencies such as aliens in a space invasion scenario, but also more recognisable images of townspeople entering closed … Continue reading Fear of the Outsider in Quatermas II

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Film, Folk Horror

The Ancient And The Otherworldly In Lucifer Rising (1970) – Kenneth Anger.

Much has been written about Kenneth Anger’s final counter-culture outpouring, Lucifer Rising.  So often the discussion of its history, its constantly evolving final form, and its links with Charles Manson’s “Family”, overshadow the real thematic content of the short film.  Whilst all of these elements are of great interest, especially in regards to Bobby Beausoleil’s score which seems highly prescient in the context of his … Continue reading The Ancient And The Otherworldly In Lucifer Rising (1970) – Kenneth Anger.

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Film

Objectification As Desire In The 1960s British Youth Film.

On a recent exploration of several films from the 1960s, some startling realisations occurred.  A change in moral values is pretty easy to distinguish within any given time-frame but the casual representation of the era’s moral values were surprising to behold.  In the 1960s, the concept of the teenager was barely a decade old; a new refreshing lease of life for a generation of people but … Continue reading Objectification As Desire In The 1960s British Youth Film.

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