Once Out of Nature: Juraj Jakubisko and Perinbaba (1985) David Melville July 2020 CTEQ Annotations on Film Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing. — W. B. Yeats The Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko has been described by some critics as ‘the Fellini of the East.’ The comparison ...
Voices from an Empty Room: Ernst Lubitsch and Angel (1937) David Melville March 2020 CTEQ Annotations on Film Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood. – Oscar Wilde The term “sophisticated comedy” has become a lazy critical shorthand for any film in which the characters sip champagne from crystal goblets an...
Death in an Italian Garden: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1970) David Melville February 2020 CTEQ Annotations on Film Dear friend, I congratulate you. Disaster endears beyond Fortune. – Emily Dickinson Il giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Vittorio De Sica, 1970) is a tranquil film about disaste...
The Gentle Perfume of Despair: Sans lendemain (Max Ophuls, 1939) David Melville March 2019 CTEQ Annotations on Film Ever and anon the snow fell, penetrating so profoundly into the depths of her enraptured being that she had no room in her for any other sensation than that of dying of cold, and being buried beneath the adorab...
A Ferocious Modesty: Benoît Jacquot’s The Wings of the Dove David Melville October 2018 The Second Generation: French Cinema After the New Wave They flourished their masks, the independent pair, as they might have flourished Spanish fans; they smiled and sighed on removing them; but the gesture, the smiles, the sighs, strangely enough, might have been ...
“Half Sick of Shadows”: Voyeurism and Psychosis in Warning Shadows David Melville June 2018 CTEQ Annotations on Film “Often,” says Tieck in William Lovell, “the world, its people, and its contingencies flicker before my eyes like flimsy shadows; often I appear to myself to be a shadow playing a part, coming and going and doi...
Budd and Sand – The Aesthetics of Gender in The Bullfighter and the Lady (Budd Boetticher, 1951) David Melville June 2017 Revisiting Budd Boetticher “I don’t know what I’m going to do. But it will be my decision.” -Robert Stack, Bullfighter and the Lady In the opening five minutes of Bullfighter and Lady (1951), viewers may well start wondering if they ha...
Of Beastly Beauties and Beauteous Beasts: Juraj Herz and the Fairy Tale David Melville June 2017 CTEQ Annotations on Film “When you dream about my likeness, you create it. The more ardently you dream, the sooner you will see me. And I will resemble your dream.” - The Beast to Beauty, Panna a netvor (Beauty and the Beast) Of al...
Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland – Luchino Visconti and White Nights David Melville January 2017 CTEQ Annotations on Film “You feel as if your dreams were alive and you could touch them – and real life just passes you by!” - Marcello Mastroianni to Maria Schell, Le notti bianche (White Nights) Night falls on a provincial Italian...
Gavaldón, Roberto David Melville December 2016 Great Directors Roberto Gavaldón 7 June 1909, Chihuahua, Mexico 4 September 1986, Mexico City The so-called Golden Age of Mexican Cinema in the 1940s and ’50s remains a mythical terra incognita for most film lovers. We may...
A Darker Shade of Noir: Psycho Sisters in The Other One (1946) David Melville June 2016 CTEQ Annotations on Film “A life that should have been but never was! A fate that moved on twisting and tortuous paths!” - Dolores del Río, La Otra (The Other One) The ‘twin sisters’ melodrama was one of the more intriguing and idios...
Ingram, Rex David Melville September 2015 Great Directors January 15, 1893, Dublin, Ireland. d. July 24, 1950, Los Angeles, USA The world’s greatest director. Erich von Stroheim Rex Ingram may be the best-known enigma in film history. We are aware of him, these d...