Monthly Archives: January 2014

Poseur Exposure

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Brown

16 Nov 2013: The Marx-Engels Reader (“Circular Letter to Bebel, Liebknecht, Bracke, and Others,” 1879, Marx) It’s rare to see something nowadays that so forcefully denounces compromise, gradualism and political correctness from a radical thinker when present-day figures like Noam … Continue reading →

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Revolutionary Programming Languages

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Brown

15 Nov 2013: The Marx-Engels Reader (“After the Revolution: Marx Debates Bakunin,” 1875, Karl Marx) Crosscurrents of insight roil around inside the somewhat informed reader to see Marx’s contentious rebuttal of the criticisms of Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. The first … Continue reading →

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Female Troubles

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Brown

15 Nov 2013: La Cotta (DVD, 1967, Ermanno Olmi) Even more than Il Posto this hour-length television feature depicts the sensitive, romantically forlorn young male that appears as prototype for the many subsequent protagonists of Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze and … Continue reading →

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The Slow and the Mild-Mannered: Milano Drift

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Brown

14 Nov 2013: Il Posto (DVD, 1961, Ermanno Olmi) The dreamlike mundanity on offer here harks forward to another Italian, Marco Ferreri, but with more of a focus on cinematography and even more of a locational drift. The camera itself … Continue reading →

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Doctor Soused

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Brown

13 Nov 2013: Drunken Angel (DVD, 1948, Akira Kurosawa) Not quite yet at the level of his masterworks of the fifties and sixties, at least as far as editing, pacing, moral exploration and overall scope is concerned – he’s probably … Continue reading →

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Accepting a Substitute

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Brown

6 Nov 2013: Kagemusha (DVD, 1980, Akira Kurosawa) As either depressing reminder of personal weakness or further testament to the spellbinding hypnosis of Kurosawa’s editing craft or well-matched synthesis of the two, my intention of watching this three-hour film in … Continue reading →

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A Light Sublime

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Brown

12 Nov 2013: Limelight (DVD, 1951, Charlie Chaplin) Much more melancholy and morose than earlier silent-era Chaplin, even when he deals with the soul-destroying industrial horrors of Modern Times, this film counterintuitively feels more inspirational because of it by truly … Continue reading →

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Capital Conclusions

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Brown

8 Nov 2013: Capital (Appendix: Results of the Immediate Process of Production, 1867, Karl Marx) This is a bulky and somewhat protean “chapter” (more like a bonus feature, really, it seems) that recapitulates and restresses many points already made in … Continue reading →

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Massacres and Wiseacres

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Brown

7 Nov 2013: Salvador (DVD, 1985, Oliver Stone) Anti-intellectual bickering and bantering loutish American men are the viewer’s designed point of identification for this film, until the tragic circumstances these men encounter or the random conversations they have with military … Continue reading →

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Junk Mail

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Brown

6 Nov 2013: The Postman Always Rings Twice (DVD, 1981, Bob Rafelson) Because of its high production values (with an expert polish to its noir aesthetic) and the star power of Jack Nicholson, this film feels much more enjoyable than … Continue reading →

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