will some music throw you off your stride

david lean - brief encounter - 1945classic drone seriessound, sound design, music in film celia johnson's inner voice hushed in relation to her neighbor's chatter(reminiscent of carl boehm's voice in peeping tom) volume on the stereo lowers as celia johnson's mind wonders to her lovesound editor - harry millermusic - muir mathieson, percival mackey

trains in cinema, part 6

train wreck at montparnasse - 1895- ben affleck - gone baby gone - 2007- tomas alfredson - let the right one it - 2008- carroll ballard - black stallion - 1979- john cassavetes - husbands - 1970- jack clayton - the innocents - 1961- john cromwell - since you went away - 1944- olivier dahan - la vie en rose - 2007- stephen daldry - the reader - 2008- david fincher - the curious case of benjamin

softened melody

from the railroad station in the distance came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. my wife pointed out to me the brightness of the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky. it seemed so safe and tranquil.- h.g. wells - the war of the worlds - 1898photo taken 12.19.(year undetermined) at pt reyes

trains in cinema, part 5

- american mutoscope and biograph co - the blizzard - 1899- jon amiel - the singing detective - 1986- paul thomas anderson - there will be blood - 2007- michelangelo antonioni - l'avventura - 1960- busby berkeley - gold diggers of 1935 "lullaby of broadway" - 1935- curtis bernhardt - possessed - 1947- g.w. "billy" bitzer - interior new york subway 14th street to 42nd street - 1905- robert breer -

other's face reflected

train abstractions fromakira kurosawa's high and low - 1963cinematography by asakazu nakai & takao saito

univers du western (trains in cinema) - night passage

jay c. flippendan duryeajames neilson - night passage - 1957cinematography by william h. daniels *music by dimitri tiomkin *with:james stewart *dan duryea *jay c. flippen *robert j. wilke *jack elam *olive carey *includes some beautiful technicolor photography by william h. daniels(not really a great film, but worth it for the muted, near monochromatic tones)(number 3 of 500 detailing westerns)

trains in cinema, part 4

- woody allen: zelig, 1983- pt anderson: there will be blood, 2007- wes anderson: darjeeling limited, 2007- james benning: rr (railroad), 2007 *- claude berri: le vieil homme et l'enfant (the two of us), 1967- robert bresson: un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou le vent souffle où il veut (man escaped), 1956- robert bresson: pickpocket, 1959- frank capra: mr. smith goes to washington, 1939- frank

robert bresson, and sound

about his use of sound in l'argent, the director thinks that "while music flattens a surface, makes it into an image," sound, on the contrary, "lends space, relief. it arrives and the screen deepens, thus bringing on the third dimension".* the idea is that one must never duplicate an image with a sound ("a sound must never come to the aid of an image, nor an image to the aid of a sound....the

robert bresson, samuel fuller, jean-pierre melville & trains in cinema

train travel in:-samuel fuller's pickup on south street, 1953 (aka pickpocket)-robert bresson's pickpocket, 1959-jean-pierre melville's le samouraï, 1967(all films comprise a certain criminal activity in the underground)abstractions from samuel fuller's pick-up on south street, 1953(dp. joseph macdonald *)moments from robert bresson's pickpocket, 1959(dp. léonce-henri burel)abstractions from

robert bresson, anatomy of a crime (in the manner of a pickpocket)

(lessons in the cafe)(our hero and his accessory)(our hero pickpocketing a watch)(trainstation segment)from robert bresson's pickpocket, 1959"bresson distilled the motion picture narrative down to a particular essence. bresson's movies are looks and gestures and precisely arranged sounds" j hoberman frontispiece from the memoirs of george barrington, 1790see alsor. s. lambert, prince of

trains in cinema, or fludd's memory system

new train film by matthew swiezynski: fludd's memory systemavailable for a brief preview here (all titles from frances a. yates' fine book the art of memory)related images from robert fludd's the macrocosm, 1617 & 1618:the great darknessthe appearance of lightthe division of the waterslet there be lightanselm kiefer: fur robert fluddfor more information on robert fludd, see joscelyn godwin's book

trains in cinema, part 3

philip d'antoni: the seven-ups, 1973alan arkin: little murders, 1971elliott gould on the nyc subway, covered in bloodhal ashby: bound for glory, 1976bernardo bertolucci: il conformista, 1970stunning train sequences (one quite artificial) photographed by vittorio storarocharles brabin: the valley of the giants, 1927clarence brown: possessed, 1931one of the most spectacular sequences in film

flug (flight)

photos by sharon harper of train travel in germany(you can see my excitement in finding these)

bright lights of moscow stations flashing into view and vanishing again behind me

i was on a train, travelling by day, but it was winter-time - late december, the very depths - and to add to it the train was heading north - to leningrad - so it was quickly darkening on the other side of the windows - bright lights of moscow stations flashing into view and vanishing again behind me like the scattering of some invisible hand - each snow-veiled suburban platform with its fleeting

and the bells were ringing

virgil caine is the name,and i served on the danville train,'til stoneman's cavalrycame and tore up the tracks again.in the winter of '65,we were hungry, just barely alive.by may the tenth, richmond had fell,it's a time I remember, oh so well,the night they drove old dixie down,and the bells were ringing,the night they drove old dixie down,and the people were singin'.they wentla, la, la, la, la,

trains in cinema, woyzeck

woyzeck directed by jános szász, 1994hungarian version of georg büchner's 1837 play woyzeck.instead of a soldier we find woyzeck as a flag man in a train yard in hungary.like bela tarr making a train film, although less minimal.with examples of; smoke, darkness, rain, snow, mud and fog (obscuring the trains and characters that pass by).close up of the tracks as a train passes by in slow motion

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