Tag: Film analysis

Film, Film Music and Sound

A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 8 (Lisztomania).

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Lizstomania and the effect of Rock Aesthetics on Classical Reception. After making Tommy, Russell clearly felt as if there was still new territory to be explored.  The last of his composer films would not simply be a final whimper in the delving into a musical and cultural history, but an all-out … Continue reading A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 8 (Lisztomania).

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Film

Goto, Isle of Love (1969) – Walerian Borowczyk (Arrow Video).

Viewing several films by Walerian Borowczyk allows certain traits and patterns to form in regard to his filmmaking.  From the extreme polar ends of Blanche (1971) to The Beast (1975), he’s a difficult to pin-down creator, though the man’s style has several factors that appear to gradually come into play.  Goto, Isle of Love (1969) already conjures images simply from its title though it’s doubtful … Continue reading Goto, Isle of Love (1969) – Walerian Borowczyk (Arrow Video).

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Film

Le Jour Se Léve (1939) – Marcel Carné (Studio Canal).

This article contains plot spoilers. Innovation lies at the heart of Marcel Carné’s fifth film, Le Jour Se Léve (Daybreak, 1939).  The innovation of narrative and how to visually interpret it; the innovation of provocative material and how to deal with it; and the innovation of producing creatively expressive work in a time where expression was the enemy of the regime.  Carné’s film isn’t simply a … Continue reading Le Jour Se Léve (1939) – Marcel Carné (Studio Canal).

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Film Music and Sound, Folk Horror, Literature, Television

The Aural Aesthetics of Ghosts in BBC Ghost Stories – Part 4 (Music).

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Nondiegetic Musical Themes And Textures. “Indeed, the celestial voices of film music do resemble a phantom in several significant ways.  They are ephemeral, they are not ‘substantial’ or do not constitute part of what audiences cognise as important in the film, and have an effect that is not apparent.” – Donnelly (p.8, 2005). Though looking at nondiegetic scores for … Continue reading The Aural Aesthetics of Ghosts in BBC Ghost Stories – Part 4 (Music).

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Film, Film Music and Sound

A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 7 (Pop Aesthetics).

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6.  The Use of Rock and Pop Aesthetics in Lisztomania (1975) and Tommy (1975). While the sociological reaction to classical music is a debatable area, Ken Russell had a very clear vision of how classical composers at least ought to have been received.  A moment in Mahler briefly summarises this idea, where Mahler is … Continue reading A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 7 (Pop Aesthetics).

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Film, Psychogeography

The Ravenous Poor in Heath Era British Cinema.

Trying to establish small cycles of trends in cinema is a key discipline in understanding the medium.  When a theme can be seen to traverse genre but be defined by era, it perhaps states more of a sociological argument than simply an aesthetic or a narrative one.  A particular group of films recently began to collect together in my own memory but the reason as … Continue reading The Ravenous Poor in Heath Era British Cinema.

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Film

The Beast (1975) – Walerian Borowczyk (Arrow Video).

By the mid 1970s, the ease in censorship over large swaths of Europe lead to cinema pushing boundaries and taboo like the medium had never done before.  The decade was awash with cinematic controversy and intelligent but often disturbing treatises on sexuality, drug culture, language, and violence.  1975 seems to be the pinnacle of the boundary pushing that started with films such as Ken Russell’s … Continue reading The Beast (1975) – Walerian Borowczyk (Arrow Video).

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Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Television

Red Shift (Play For Today, 1978) – John Mackenzie (BFI).

A shifting sense of time, space, and place can bring huge advantages to fantastical works of fiction.  The feeling that time is a folded concept, repeating and resetting in a quasi-ritualistic ceremony of life adds a sheen of the monumental to even the smallest and most intimate of dramas.  This sheen is the absolute embodiment of the work of writer, Alan Garner, and is never … Continue reading Red Shift (Play For Today, 1978) – John Mackenzie (BFI).

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Film Music and Sound, Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Television

The Aural Aesthetics of Ghosts in BBC Ghost Stories – Part 3 (William Ager).

Part 1. Part 2. A “Disembodied Voice” of some form is a clear norm for representing a creature that, by its very definition, is now bodiless.  This means that, as an aural technique, it is used frequently throughout many other ghost stories as well.  In Lawrence Gordon Clark’s films, the aural trait occurs several times with different and varying effects, though never with the layered … Continue reading The Aural Aesthetics of Ghosts in BBC Ghost Stories – Part 3 (William Ager).

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Film, Film Music and Sound

A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 6 (Mahler).

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Mahler (1974) and the Balance Between Personal Reception and History. Mahler is an apt end for this period in Ken Russell’s musical exploration for a number of reasons.  It firstly completes the transition in the director’s popularity as well as the full fledgling of creative confidence.  It also manages to amalgamate all of the elements … Continue reading A Musicological Study of Ken Russell’s Composer Films – Part 6 (Mahler).

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