Device Notes

The Night is a semi-autobiographical film reflecting director Mohammad Malas's childhood from before the Second World War into the 1950s.  Its main characters are alter egos for Malas and his parents.  The film mostly takes place in flashback.   It's bookended by scenes in which the stand-ins for Malas and his mother speak retrospectively of their memories of the film's events.  There is a scene in which the child goes to school for the first time.  His father, Allalah, carries him across a shallow river on his back.  The school is on a hill in front of them.  We look at it from below.  We see scores of children walking down the hill, surrounded by swaying plants, with a spinning windmill in the background at the top of the frame.  The sights and sounds evoke life in the open air, the liberating feeling of discovery. Expressive scenes like this mark the emotional heights that burned themselves into the characters' memories. ...

The above is from Artists and Models , one of the best rewatches I had recently and the film that turned me on to Jerry Lewis.  I saw a lot more movies in the last three months than I normally would have, many of which I found great.  The ones below, except for the last one, are the ones I'd recommend to just about everyone.  I wouldn't expect everyone to like them, but these ones helped me to understand other films in new ways.  As for the last one, I suggest you read this if you need context. Aag (1948) If you decide to watch any of Raj Kapoor's films, I recommend you also see this one.  His films show recurring misfortunes that happen throughout their central characters' lives.  The musical numbers are often about how the characters respond to this, how they create identities, catharsis, or moments of escape for themselves.  In 1978's Satyam Shivam Sundaram , the main character sings to express the spirituality that helps her make sense of her li...

To me, the unsettled reaction some people have to Close Encounters of the Third Kind  is evidence that Spielberg is a great filmmaker.  An audience could easily take it as optimistic and spectacular, but there are things about it that bother some people.  The film's main character pursues an obsession at the expense of his relationship with his family, and instead is drawn into communion with complete strangers.  It's a film about a man who sees something as divine, and responds to it as if it really were, even when it demands that he upend his life and torpedo his closest relationships.  Many scenes are portrayed with bizarrely overlapping sounds, and the film's tone changes in odd swings throughout.   It simultaneously suggests that what's really important might demand things of us that make us uncomfortable, that we are capable of great and terrible things when we believe something is important, and that such belief may be very confused, delusion...