The dog in Pauline à la plage
Narrative art often imitates life; just as often, the attempt will stumble on the looseness of life’s “plots” (or maybe it’s the total lack thereof). This may be an impossible problem; after all,...
View ArticleClosing images
Advance warning: the post that follows necessarily reveals the resolution of both Éric Rohmer’s Conte d’automne (Autumn Tale) and Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet. If you haven’t seen either and would...
View ArticleTativille 1: “Le monde entier devient une clinique” (the whole world becomes...
Assuming it is well made enough that the handle won’t slip off during use, a knife will only be dangerous when employed dangerously. Likewise, under similar assumptions, architecture and technology...
View ArticleTativille INTERVAL: cameos & red herrings
I’m not aware whether Jacques Tati might have watched North by Northwest (1959) while he was touring the USA to promote Mon oncle (1958). I don’t even know whether he liked Alfred Hitchcock much. But...
View ArticleTativille 2: “Ce ne sera plus mon film” (it will be my film no longer)
François Truffaut had been ambivalent about Jacques Tati’s work (he’d called the director “laborious” in correspondence with Helen Scott), prior to watching Play time (1967). Having done so, he was...
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