Tag Archives: David Bordwell

common sense: gossiping around the village pump

The decline of common sense and why we might wish to revive it…. A truly surprising paradox is implied in all this. Prideful thought and common sense stand at opposite poles, yet the poles turn out to be the very … Continue reading

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The decline of common sense

Common sense is usually said to be sturdy, but in fact it has been faring badly ever since the scientific revolution began. It is plain, common sense declared in those days, that the sun revolves around the earth. Wrong, said … Continue reading

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trial of a soapbox romantic

The problem with the prodigy, the adult prodigy, is the fact of dealing with once being great, and living perpetually in eclipse. Orson Welles was a romantic since birth, a romantic always outside, outside adapting to the narrow and canny … Continue reading

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welles: frozen in the role of prodigy

Every discussion of Citizen Kane, or of any other Welles movie, is sure to bring up his camera sense. In Kane there is the brilliant pseudo newsreel of the great man’s death, the senate investigation scene that is modeled on … Continue reading

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liquid architecture

Free and wild. A new frontier leaving strong emotional impressions. And for better or worse eschewing the middle-brow trap, that seduction of fantasy of liberal social and cultural improvement achieved at the expense of innovation and creativity. Face it, the … Continue reading

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PERSONALITY CRISIS: VAMPIRES & INSUPERABLE DISTANCE BETWEEN TRUTH AND POSSIBILITY

“In Persona the stunning sensuous-mouthed Liv Ullmann plays Elizabet Volger, an actress who suddenly, during a performance, gets an overwhelming desire to laugh. (She’s acting in a tragedy, so the laughter seems inappropriate to her) And after she gets the … Continue reading

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MOUSE TRAPS & REALITY FLAPS

”I’m sometimes frightened when I watch his films. Frightened because of some absolute perfection in what he does. This man seems to know not only the magic of all technical means, but also all the most secret strands of human … Continue reading

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Animated Blogs on Film and Comic Art

Exploring the web is theoretically as gaping as a black hole or discovering a winning lottery ticket in a sand quarry but in practical terms somewhat less daunting. Two blog pages came to Madame Pickwick’s attention this past week when … Continue reading

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