"Hiroshima Mon Amour", dissecting post-war welt-gestalt
Japanese man and European woman fall in love in post-war Hiroshima, brilliant voice-overs and a slightly alienating traumatised city provide the backdrop for a story about two people and what appears to be an impossible love. What might appear to be a cliché movie turns out to be a haunting study in atmosphere and the way humans cope with the horror that is war.
That black, festering, throbbing thing in your stomach - or the future and why to fear it
The author reflects on the horrendous prospects of living in the past-now, giving credence to the Copeland concept of Now-Denial and drawing analogies with Philo's line of argument in Hume's "Dialogues On Natural Religion".
Tadao Ando and Andreas, comparative study of similarities in style
The former being one of the best architects of our times with his distinct, brilliantly simple style and the latter a genius in the realm of illustrated story-telling; a confrontation of their work and what it is they have in common. As an aside we explore Andreas' work centering on Frank Lloyd Wright and place it all in a broader framework of architecture in comics.
Conway in Metropolis, patterns in suburbia
Using Lewis Mumford's seminal work on urban development and growth of the city throughout history as a background we explore the intricacies of cellular automata as introduced by Conway.
"Revulsion", saturated sensations in a brooding masterpiece
Catherine Deneuve plays Carol, living with her sister in an apartment in London and working in a beauty parlor. The camera follows her while she walks home from work, feverishly close-up, she appears distant, maybe slightly revolted. You can sense the feeling of disgust building up, a psychosis creeping up slowly. Subtle visual clues like the lighting (photography by Taylor of Dr. Strangelove and Star Wars fame) create a sort of oppressed atmosphere. The film reminds me of Bergman with a lot of close-up shots, long periods without music, only mute background noises and sharp accentuating shockers like doorbells or ringing telephones and in this case the annoying clamour of bells from a nearby school.The sense of repulsion increases. Her sister leaves on vacation. The psychosis worsens, the walls start to crack and become soft and malleable. Near the end she walks towards her sister's bedroom through a hallway where hands start coming out of the walls, carressing her, touching her. Very Cronenberg.