kinds of light @thomasgrieve - Tumblr Blog

The Loveless (Kathryn Bigelow & Monty Montgomery, 1981)

Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery’s shiny and chrome fifties biker movie The Loveless sees Willem Dafoe’s motorcycle gang stop off in small town America long enough to stir the locals into a frenzy. The film is painstakingly cool; with a compulsive attention to period detail and dialogue so sharp it’ll cut you: "What’s a bum gotta do to drive this thing?" "Turn the key." The camera lingers on male bodies, ogling the leather-clad gang members as if they come from another planet. Of course, to the locals, whose world consists of a garage, a bar and a diner, they might as well do. The natives react to the invasion of their town with a mixture of anger, awe and straight up envy: “Y’know, I ain’t never seen anything like it in my life. They’re animals! Hell, I’d love to trade places with them for a day or two.” By the end though, the film has the townsfolk reveal their own lurking brand of entrenched, masculine ugliness as far more awful than anything the rebel-posers (“It don’t matter which way I’m coming from. It’s which way I’m going.”) on Harleys can come up with.

#the loveless #kathryn bigelow #monty montgomery #1981 #willem dafoe

Fat City (John Huston, 1972)

John Huston's Fat City may come as something of a surprise to those more familiar with the films he did with Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s and '50s. This lean, probing work concerned with the lives of two boxers - one in the twilight of his career (Stacy Keach) and the other just beginning (Jeff Bridges) - has none of the lumbering awkwardness that sometimes afflicts the '70s work of the great directors of classical Hollywood. The drab colour scheme and naturalistic staging mean that this looks and feels very much like an independent film of the New Hollywood. However, it lacks the youthful energy and the passion for violence that characterises films such as Mean Streets, Bonnie and Clyde or Easy Rider. Huston is more concerned with the way life beats you down slowly; the relationship mistakes, the blown opportunities and the burnt bridges that can leave a person asking where it all went wrong.

It's a pessimistic and existential film more interested in watching its characters fade away than go out in a blaze of glory. Lots of boxing films - including some great ones - use the sport to show working class characters punching their way to glory. The American Dream is arguably nowhere better illustrated than in the tale of the plucky underdog, fighting from a back-alley gym to a tilt at the World Heavyweight Championship. Huston's Fat City undermines this one-in-a-million fairy tale, showing the sport as a hard slog, where even the talented are usually left only with a few "nearly" stories as their wrecked and exploited bodies are forced to return to the ring for steadily worse returns.

"Maybe he's happy."

"Maybe we're all happy."

#fat city #john huston #boxing #boxing film #1972

“PEANUTSSS!”

Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)

“...a film thick with fog, bourbon and cigarette smoke that will leave you with a lump in your throat, a smile on your face, and the roar of aircraft ringing in your ears.”

I attempt to do some justice to one of my all time favourites over at The Skinny.

#only angels have wings #howard hawks #1939 #cary grant #jean arthur

Vendredi Soir (Claire Denis, 2002)

#vendredi soir #claire denis #2002 #paris

Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)

#point blank #john boorman #lee marvin #1967

The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959)

Fuller beginning to turn noir to his own ends, exploring a multi-racial city and the spaces that exist between its inhabitants. The Crimson Kimono is at its best exploring the gap that exists between peoples brains and how jealousy and societal prejudice can distort our perceptions of one another. Charlie and Joe live together, work together and they even share a pint of blood, but, despite their best efforts, they are still divided by the underlying racism in the society they exist within. In typically magnificent Fuller style, this division is represented in his ferociously expressive camera work and weighty moments of physical violence.

#samuel fuller #the crimson kimono #noir #1959

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)

#syndromes and a century #apichatpong weerathakul #2006 #thailand

I explored twenty years of Dern/Lynch for The Skinny.

Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)

Wild at Heart (David Lynch, 1990)

INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)

#laura dern #david lynch #blue velvet #1986 #wild at heart #1990 #INLAND EMPIRE #2006

those colours.

Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)

#Pier Paolo Pasolini #teorema #1968 #italy #silvana mangano

Assassination (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964)

#assassination #masahiro shinoda #1964 #japanese new wave

this film has the best intro credits by Ennio Morricone.

Hawks and Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)

#pier paolo pasolini #hawks and sparrows #1966

Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006)

The best type of ‘issues’ picture. Panahi depicts the plight of women arrested for trying to sneak into the male-only Iran vs Bahrain World Cup qualifier but instead of taking a furious (and justified) swipe at the authorities he builds his film on quiet incredulity. He shows us humanity on all sides whilst firmly coming down on the that of the detained women. It’s a film that moves with grace and humour, before erupting in a euphoric finale that highlights the power and importance of sport better than anything else I can think of.

#panahi #offside #2006 #jafar panahi