• Idle Reflections

The Limey (1999): Mise-en-Scène and Glib Dialogue

8 months ago

"The Limey" is essentially a father-daughter story of a very strange sort, in at least two discrete dimensions. Masterful in…

  • On Literature, Books

Mary Stuart. The Maid of Orleans. Two Historical Plays By Schiller

8 months ago

Not so recently acquired: Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart and The Maid of Orleans. Two Historical Plays in One Volume!

  • Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

April Absolutions: Reading, Watching

9 months ago

The highnotes: The Letter (1940), Hobson's Choice (1954), Stefan Zweig, Henrik Ibsen. The lownotes: The Matrix (1999) and its progency,…

  • Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Manic March 2024 Reading, Writing

10 months ago

David Graeber's "The Utopia of Rules," Michael Haneke's "Funny Games," Ida Lupino in "Women's Prison." Is it too late to…

  • Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Frigid February 2024 Reading & Watching

11 months ago

The so-called Glaciation Trilogy and the only Hamaguchi film I hadn't seen, as well as David Graeber's "Utopia of Rules"

  • On Film, Movies, Cinema

“71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance” (1994): Is Michael Haneke Anti-Narrative?

11 months ago

Elsewhere Haneke has described some of his films as anti-narrative. Is it true of "71 Fragments of a Chronology of…

  • On Film, Movies, Cinema

Reflections on “Benny’s Video” (1992): Image, Sound, Reality, Parental Neglect

11 months ago

The televisual void has sucked away all vestiges of reality from lived experience: Benny makes videos to capture what is…

  • On Film, Movies, Cinema

“The Seventh Continent” (1989) by Michael Haneke

12 months ago

"The Seventh Continent" is Australia, where Georges, Anna, and Eva are going to live, right after they annihilate all vestiges…

  • Monthly Reading, Viewing Report

Cold January 2024: Reading and Writing

12 months ago

Greatest hits of January 2023: The Manchurian Candidate, Austerlitz, Blood Meridian, King Lear, and The Long Good Friday

  • Idle Reflections

The Arden Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

1 year ago

On the second series edition of the Arden Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra", both this particular 1991 printing as well as…