see you at London Short Film Festival? hitting up the Institute of Contemporary Arts this Friday –– opening night –– for quite a fun mix of sex, materiality, comedy, bodies, _stuff_ Etc ––

James Baldwin famously attacked this approach to art in Everybody's Protest Novel, arguing against the conflation of literature & sociology & the elevation of message over aesthetic concerns. DuVernay's film is a literal attempt to turn a sociology book into a narrative drama.

Flabby spectacle from Nolan or moralistic ‘message’ cinema from DuVernay…

For Kuleshov, writing in 1920-22, the 'linkage' between two shots generates an idea; Eisenstein expanded that argument, making the point that two shots can be 'collided' to generate –– or even manipulate – an emotion. Moving image tells the story; it carries your 'idea'

Let’s play a game - Kiarostami or Rupi Kaur?

soon, we'll be recording a big episode on American filmmaker Larry Gottheim –– thru berries, barns, fog, and gestures; joined by regular guest Daniel Neofetou

quite mad that we've hit 5k subscribers on our Return to Form youtube channel –– it's a great way to hear long-form discussions on new releases and deep-dives on the kino archive (w/ a big Larry Gottheim special and 'what's wrong with British cinema' episode in the works)

We are finally gearing up for a mammoth episode on The Problem of British Cinema! Please tell us your favs/bugbears/diagnoses…

"This denial is sustained by the film’s anti-narrative mode, pressurizing the viewing experience by refusing any of the devices by which stories can give relief or provide moral reassurance..." Ed Luker (E L) writes on THE ZONE OF INTEREST. mubi.com/en/notebook/po…

Every time they do this it feels like a Bresson film because they deliberately choose closeup detail shots which don’t reveal characters - it has also several times been a Bresson film

when it’s taken that representation = good because it shows something about a group, this weird inverse becomes true wherein if something is shown, it is assumed to be meant to be taken to be good

★★★★ “Strange and fragmented and often bizarrely funny” … “This is a cinema of ideas” - The Guardian DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD is in Cinemas from 8th March … BOOK TICKETS

it's not exhaustive, but it *is* a diagnosis –– you can watch or listen to the full episode wherever you normally find these things (youtube, spotify, your podcast RSS)

don't know what to see at the kino this weekend? go and see Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, by Radu Jude –– it's honestly the high water-mark of where film should be at (and it is very funny, too)

Jordan The problem is there’s nothing that actually unites these films — it’s just what comes up when you google ‘disturbing movies’. A national cinematheque needs to set its bar higher than this. It’s part of the same tailism that is going to see S+S fold under the new editorship.