Life is the little that is left over from dying. - Walt Whitman

rain, landscape and light in ozu's a story of floating weeds, 1934

beautiful images by yasujiro ozu and cinematographer hideo shigehara.

tram serie 1500, 1928

carminati & toselli, breda e altri giovanni cuccoliinteriorin action in milan (piazza cordusio)working in san francisco, having been in milano, and loving trains and italian design, i felt obliged to put these three photos up i found in the book design anonimo in italia, by alberto bassi published by electa.besides the beauty of the trains, they sure do make amazing sounds as well. when i heard

robert maillart......béton armé

(my last post before i go to nyc for a week to see all the vermeers, check out the new moma, and box up 1400 books)nice images from a book i was looking at on the swiss bridge builder/architect robert maillart.the image is "landquartbrucke in klosters, 1930" from the eth catalogue robert maillart: beton virtuose.

trains in cinema, part 1

g.w. "billy" bitzer,c. 1896chantal akerman: les rendez-vous d'anna 1978"anna's world is a fragmented universe of silent train stations and hotel rooms" ica londonamerican mutoscope & biograph co.: ghost train 1903a train roars towards the camera, seen in the negative.ghost train 1903ken annakin: across the bridge 1957nimród antal: *kontroll 2003frederick armitage & a.e. weed: down the hudson

ivanovo detstvo & die große stille

andrei tarkovsky: ivan's childhood 1963tarkovsky said of ivan's childhood:"generally people's memories are coloured by poetry. the most beautiful memories are those of childhood. of course memory has to be worked upon before it can become the basis of an artistic reconstruction of the past; and here it is important not to lose the particular emotional atmosphere without which a memory evoked in

dogs and stairs by terragni

2 images relating to giuseppe terragni, fascist architect.photo by terragninovocomun, como, main staircase, terragni

Little care I take

the naked city & the most dangerous game

realism & artificiality in 2 great american films.watching 2 movies this evening, i found that my favourite part of each film contrasted realism & artificiality.1. realism: the end of the docunoir film the naked city (jules dassin, 1948) where willie garzah runs to his death on the williamsburg bridge, hunted by barry fitzgerald. this film throughout has the grittiness of a neo-realist film, but

robby müller, cinematographer

robby müller (1940-)bio from wim wenders site:"robby mueller was born on april 4th 1940 in villemstad, curacao, on the dutch antilles. he studied at the filmacademy in holland from 1962 to 1964 and started to work as a director of photography soon afterwards".certainly one of the most interesting living cinematographers, he has worked with wim wenders, lars von trier and jim jarmusch among

panopticism

the panopticon is a prison building designed by english philosopher jeremy bentham in the late eighteenth century. the design allows the observer to view all prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell if they are being observed or not."hence the major effect of the panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of

henwar rodakiewicz, water, light and the mechanized eye

henwar rodakiewicz (1903-1976): portrait of a young man (1925-31), 54 minutes.from the dvd set unseen cinema, the mechanized eye, experiments in technique and form.54 minutes of drifting clouds and smoke, pulsing mechanic devices, abstracted water, and trees and leaves being blown about by the wind.from the wonderful bruce posner's box set unseen cinema.can't seem to find out much about henwar

brice marden

went to the brice marden exhibition at the sfmoma today (3.18.2007)and decided to decorate the pages of the art of memory (b)leating (l)ethargic (o)rnery (g)oat with some of his fine images.

abstractions from la cartomancienne

water sequences from jerome hill's film la cartomancienne / fortune teller, 1932.this film contains 2 sublime abstract water sequences.r. bruce eder explains that the film uses ideas about the transformation of the self that c.g. jung found in alchemical texts. although i find the rest of the film not exactly to my taste, the 2 abstract sequences certainly seem to be fine examples of the

Nothing said and nothing sungIn the first days I am dead.

comments on 2 recent videos by m swiezynski

screening at the san francisco cinematheque of 2 videos by matthew swiezynski on february 25, 2007 at the yerba buena center for the arts, san francisco,-rue de vaugirard, 1909, 1998-l'amourphysique, 2005l'amourphysique, 2005here are the comments made by curator charles boone:matthew swiezynski's work is an ongoing, metaphoric look at some of the micro aspects of our world: of viewing, of time,

kon ichikawa's the burmese harp & fires on the plain

images from 2 films by kon ichikawa. the burmese harp 1956 & fires on the plain 1959.the landscape photography and music in these 2 films is stunning. photography and music work together in both films to such a degree that the dialogue becomes almost unnecessary (especially in fires on the plain).there obviously is much more going on in these 2 works than the visuals, but for me they are the

winton c. hoch, cinematographer

winton c. hoch (1905-1979).(pronounced "hoke" or "huke")the great cinematographer winton c. hoch was born in iowa and was noted for his work in color cinematography, mainly for john ford.joseph mcbride said of him in his book searching for john ford "trained as a research physicist at the california institute of technology, known as an expert in color cinematography.... did laboratory work on

joe macdonald, cinematographer

joseph macdonald (1906-1968).the great cinematographer joseph macdonald was born in mexico city to american parents. he started working in the film industry in the early 1920s and became a director of photography in the 1940s. macdonald was long with 20th century-fox and worked with such great directors as john ford, henry hathaway, william wellman, elia kazan, samuel fuller and nicholas

antonioni's l'eclisse & architettura e fascismo

michelangelo antonioni's film l'eclisse, 1962 and italian fascist architecture.l'eclisse was antonioni's last film from the trilogy on modern malaise (or the 3rd part of a tetralogy that includes the red desert, 1964), and stars alain delon and monica vitti.this post looks at how antonioni photographed rome so beautifully in l'eclisse (and also the fascist town in l'avventura) and its relation to