Alice Guy-Blaché (and a little help for history)

Pardon the interruption, but a Kickstarter project that’s truly worthy of the attention (and support) of any fan of film history has hit my radar and I felt compelled to share. Titled Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, it’s a documentary project that seeks to share the story of one of the cinema’s most noteworthy pioneers. This video will tell you a bit more:

AMBER I-II: A Vine Series

A frame from AMBER.

Capturing the light, and finding warmth therein.

ELECTRIC LIGHT I-II: A Vine Series

A frame from ELECTRIC LIGHT II.

The devolution of artificial/stagnant ways of seeing. The evolution of new ideas.

SUBSURFACE I-III: A Vine Series

A frame from SUBSURFACE II.

Seeking to dig deeper into the/a visible world, to get inside a/the moving image.

OFFICE VIEW I-VII: A Vine Series

A frame from OFFICE VIEW I.

Unsurprisingly, I imagine — given the title of the series — each of the following videos was taken in my office at American Cinematographer magazine.

ROOM TONE I-V: A Vine Series

A frame grab from ROOM TONE.

Desiring to use the (or at least a) camera to see the world in a new light/through a different lens, I’ve found Vine to be a wonderful tool toward that end. It’s inherent limitations — primarily that no video lasts longer than 6 seconds, but also the built-in camera of my iPhone 4S — provide a liberating framework, and within its strictures there still exists a near-infinite field of possibilities. In fits and starts, I’ve been exploring a particular corner of that field through both series of related videos and the occasional standalone piece. For the sake of my own obsessive-compulsive tendencies, I’m going to begin posting the videos in related groupings here on the blog.

“C’est mon métier”: Two by Jean-Pierre Melville

Deux hommes dans Manhattan
1959, Jean-Pierre Melville

Un Flic
1972, Jean-Pierre Melville

The final word: A brief note regarding THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger
2013, Gore Verbinski

Notes on LES VAMPIRES

Last October, I wrote a review of Kino Classics’ Blu-ray release of Louis Feuillade’s masterpiece of fevered, serial storytelling, Les Vampires, for the American Cinematographer website. That review (which you can read here) weighed in at 1,274 words, but I also had a document more than 1,600 words long of notes that didn’t make the final cut. Here, for what will hopefully be your reading pleasure, are those excised notes…

Les Vampires
1915-’16, directed by Louis Feuillade

Counterprogramming: LA POINTE COURTE

A few words on Agnès Varda’s 1954 film La Pointe Courte, to cleanse the palette after Man of Steel.