Bob Clark’s “Thesis Review” of Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ at The Aspect Ratio

Bob Clark, a ceaselessly prolific and fecund commentator here at ‘Wonders in the Dark’, has penned a sprawling socio-political and literary essay on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” that fully deserves attention from all serious film lovers. Posted this afternoon at “The Aspect Ratio”, a site manned by Clark and “Ari”, it’s a chaptered treatment that makes more than a passing reference to Fritz Lang and his films, “Testament of Dr. Mabuse” and “Manhunt”. Bob’s work here is utterly remarkable. Here’s the link to “The Aspect Ratio”:

http://theaspectratio.net/inglouriousbasterds.htm

Read Full Post »

Shoah (no 29)

(France 1985 565m) DVD1/2

I will give them an everlasting name

p/d  Walter Lanzmann  ph  William Lubtchansky, Dominique Chapuis, Jimmy Glasberg  ed  Ziva Postec, Anna Ruiz 

Shoah is a problematic film in many ways.  Not just for its subject, but in its very essence.  It troubles you in ways few other films could dream of.  That in itself is part of its power, both to appal and shock.  The very word means annihilation, and that’s in many ways what Lanzmann does to cinematic convention.  Compare it, say, to the stark and poetic simplicity of Alain Resnais’ Nuit et Brouillard.  It has been argued that Resnais’ gets over the disturbing truth about the Holocaust with more clarity than Lanzmann.  Certainly he did so with more succinctness.  Shoah can be a painful film to watch, again not just for its content, but for its technique.  Parts of it are excruciating, and yet one remains immersed; it literally has all the fascination of a public execution. 

Read Full Post »