On Doors (3): La Belle Noiseuse

(La Belle Noiseuse; Jacques Rivette 1991)

On Doors (2): The Diary of a Chambermaid

The closed door marks a boundary - the forbidden territory of desire.


Desire and violence occupy the same space. In Renoir's films, desire only leads to violence and death.


Renoir shuts the door on desire and violence - but only to let it burst through more forcefully.


Renoir's fascination with backs - doors in themselves, slightly ajar.

(The Diary of a Chambermaid; Jean Renoir 1946)

On Doors (1): Vanina Vanini

In response to Pedro Costa's seminar.

(Vanina Vanini; Roberto Rossellini 1961)

Rossellini and Giotto

(The Seven Virtues: Charity; Giotto 1305)

"But in later years I came to understand that the arresting strangeness, the special beauty of these frescoes derived from the great part played in them by symbolism, and the fact that this was represented not as a symbol (for the thought symbolized was nowhere expressed) but as a reality, actually felt or materially handled, added something more precise and more literal to the meaning of the work, something more concrete and more striking to the lesson it imparted."

(The Miracle; Roberto Rossellini 1948)

"And quite possibly, this lack (or seeming lack) of participation by a person's soul in the virtue of which he or she is the agent has, apart from its aesthetic meaning, a reality which, if not strictly psychological, may at least be called physiognomical." -- Marcel Proust

(The Miracle; Roberto Rossellini 1948)

Il pleure dans mon coeur

Rain and cherry blossoms (2/27/2010)

Thoughts on the close-up (1)

"There is no close-up of the face. The close-up is the face, but the face precisely insofar as it has destroyed its triple function [individuation, socialization, communication] - a nudity of the face much greater than that of the body, an inhumanity much greater than that of animals."

(The Brown Bunny; Vincent Gallo 2003)

"The close-up has merely pushed the face to those regions where the principle of individuation ceases to hold sway. They are not identical because they resemble each other, but because they have lost individuation no less than socialization and communication. This is the operation of the close-up. The close-up does not divide one individual, any more than it reunites two: it suspends individuation ... It absorbs two beings, and absorbs them in the void ... The facial close-up is both the face and its effacement." -- Gilles Deleuze

(The Brown Bunny; Vincent Gallo 2003)

2009 book-keeping

As usual, a list that represents moments which were important to me this year, as marked by the movies I've seen during those times. It also includes traumatic moments- discoveries/rediscoveries, inspirations in form and in spirit-

The Long Day Closes (Terrence Davies, 1992)
Hélas Pour Moi (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)
Beyond the Forest (King Vidor, 1949)
To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)
Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988)
Pola X (Leos Carax, 1999) + The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax, 1991)
Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, 2007)
The Inner Scar (Philippe Garrel, 1972)
À Nos Amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
The Rink (Charles Chaplin, 1916)
J'Entends Plus La Guitare (Philippe Garrel, 1991) + The Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel, 2008)
Femme Fatale (Brian DePalma, 2002)
Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)
Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, 2008)
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)
There Was a Father (Yasujiro Ozu, 1942)
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
Notre Musique (Jean-Luc Godard, 2004)
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)
Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
Ali (Michael Mann, 2001)
La Réligieuse (Jacques Rivette, 1966)
Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, 1998)
L'Amour Fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
The Yards (James Gray, 2000) + Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
The Dead (John Huston, 1987)
Battle in Heaven (Carlos Reygadas, 2005)
The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003)
Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo, 1998)
Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005) + Emergency Kisses (Philippe Garrel, 1989)
A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (José Mojica Marins, 1964) + This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse (José Mojica Marins, 1967)
Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Elio Petri, 1970)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009)
Ne Change Rien (Pedro Costa, 2009) + Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006)
Sicilia! (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1997) + Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? (Pedro Costa, 2001)
M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)
Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
The Sex Garage (Fred Halsted, 1972) + L.A. Plays Itself (Fred Halsted, 1972)
The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)

Always a moral vision; no separation between ethics and aesthetics, the personal and the political.