Ruminative ‘35 Shots of Rum’ by Claire Denis Features Wordless Expression in Homage to Ozu

by Sam Juliano
      Enigmatic French director Claire Denis has long ignored traditional plot conventions and a preponderance of dialogue to craft seemingly oblique dramas that have favored physicality and wordless expression.  The noted auteur stays the course in what can rightfully be seen as her most accesible film to date, 35 Shots of Rum, a [...]

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Joel Bocko’s Review of Von Trier’s ‘Anti-Christ’

The Dancing Image’s Joel Bocko. a.k.a. ‘Movie Man’ is one of  WitD’s most analytically gifted commentators.  He also writes free-lance for ‘The Boston Examiner’ where his terrific review of Lars Von Trier’s ‘Anti-Christ’ recently appeared.  With permission from the Examiner, the feature is  printed here.  Bocko, also known affectionately as “Movie Man” is the second WitD staff member [...]

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Monday Morning Diary (December 7)

Paulette Godard and the Little Tramp in Chaplin’s masterpiece “Modern Times” (1936) shown Saturday night at Loew’s Jersey City movie palace.

by Sam Juliano    
     As the holiday season moves into high gear, many will find refuge in movie theatres, perhaps in between shopping ventures, and as always, December promises a number of year-end prestige pictures that [...]

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90’s Poll Deadline is Sunday Night, December 13th at 11:00 P.M; Silent Poll to Commence Before Christmas

Abel Gance’s silent masterpiece, “La Reue” (1923)

     The two-month duration of voting for the 90’s poll will conclude on Sunday December 13th at 11:00 P.M., eight days from the date of this post.  With Allan’s #1 choice unveiled today, remaining voters are asked to get their own lists in order and post them under the [...]

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Patrice Chereau’s Metropolitan Opera Production of Janacek’s Haunting ‘From the House of the Dead’ from Dostoyevsky

 by Sam Juliano
     From the House of the Dead, based on a novel by Dostoyevsky, may well be famed Czechoslovakian composer Leos Janacek’s most extraordinary opera.  The rather extreme musical style of the last years of Janacek’s life is complemented here by a dramaturgy in opera that was actually years ahead of its time.  This [...]

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Jane Campion’s Sublime ‘Bright Star’ on Fanny Brawne-John Keats Romance

 
  
by Sam Juliano
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still [...]

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Lars Von Trier’s Bleak, Brutal and Magnificent “Antichrist”

by Sam Juliano
     One of opera’s most beautiful arias, Handel’s mournful “Lascia Ch’io pianga” from Act II of Rinaldo, provides the aural accompaniment to one of the most ravishing opening sequences in the history of cinema.  Yet it’s a sequence that ends in unconscionable tragedy, after the infant son of a young couple “doing it” climbs [...]

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Monday Morning Diary (November 30)

by Sam Juliano
     Although traffic has declined over the Thanksgiving break at Wonders, as it has on just about every other blogsite, a number of early week posts have again attracted large comment totals, with most of exceeding high quality.  Countdown reviews of L.A. Confidential, Eyes Wide Shut and Breaking the Waves have inspired stupendous [...]

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In The Saturday Afternoon Interview Spotlight: Eric Beetner and J.B.Kohl’s authors of the recently released book “One Too Many Blows To The Head”…

Saturday, November 28, 2009
Good Sunday Morning, Wonders in the Dark readers,
I was very fortunate to interview authors Eric Beetner and J.B.Kohl, on my blog yesterday afternoon, but due to the fact, that I don’t get as much “traffic” I decided to ask Sam Juliano, if it would be all right with him if I could
share [...]

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Noirish ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’ Showcases Surrealism and Hilarity

Eva Mendes and Nicolas Cage in Warner Herzog’s ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’

    by Sam Juliano
     Although Werner Herzog’s new feature Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans is neither a sequel nor a remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult film, there’s an undeniable kinship in the immorality of the lead characters.  Like the earlier [...]

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