Showbiz: Amateur Adventures in Film Studies

This week we do a bit of noticing about representations of childhood, building fantasy into your story, and how refreshing a simple film can be.

This week we do a bit of noticing about cool camera techniques, Robespierre revisionism, and that everyone agrees Napoleon and Josephine were wack (not wiggity wack... just regular) in Napoleon (1927).

This week we do a bit of noticing of visual motifs and lateral career moves in the brilliant The Crowd (1928).

This week we do a bit of noticing about social commentary in film, the trouble with satire, and that Wolverine and Sabre-tooth really, really need to just bone down...

We do a bit of noticing of bias, propaganda, and interrupted sleep in The Hour of the Furnaces.

We do a bit of noticing about the famously racist director of Birth of a Nation making a movie about intolerance in a movie that was seemingly a million dollar attempt to take his ball and go home. Also, the Oscars were a thing.

We do a bit of noticing about special effects in and the cultural impact of Star Wars. Do we get sidetracked discussing the diminishing returns of a Galaxy Far, Far Away? Sure. May the Force be with us as we try to decide which character we would be and which franchise movie was the biggest let down.

We do a bit of noticing of messed up sibling dynamics, red rooms, and academic loneliness in Cries and Whispers directed by Ingmar Bergman.