There are many movies that people point to as striking precursors to films noir, most of which I'm not sold on as such...but someone that definitely should be mentioned more often in relation to this topic is WERNER HOCHBAUM, auteur of bizzare and glittering crime and melodrama pictures that I want to call crazed Ur-noir. He's become one of the most fascinating figures of Weimar and Third Reich-era German filmmaking to me.

His films are enigmas—extravagantly, menacingly expressionistic pieces made…

I tell the truth in signs.
Love appears every day
for one who offers love.
That wisdom is enough.

Hadewijch, excerpt from "Love Has Seven Names"

A great American masterpiece of inspired genius...and yes I mean every word of that!! This film always leaves me breathless and wondering, HOW DID SHE DO IT...fantastical, dreamy hagiography (of a fictitious artist-saint) mixed with strong Christian feminist sentiment, conveyed by the most marvelously choreographed moving tableaux. The camera does a slow, measured, erotic…

Debates about Woke vs. Anti-Woke are hotter than ever. You’d think that the noise of the “culture wars” would quiet down a little post-U.S. election, or that issues such as the rapid erosion of civil rights for trans people or pro-Palestine protestors being disappeared by ICE and spirited off to black sites for “interrogation” would be framed in a more serious light. But the opposite is happening. People on all points of the political spectrum seem to have a growing…

I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE IRONY POISONING I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE BPD GIRL MEMES I HATE PASTICHE I HATE PASTICHE I HATE PASTICHE I HATE PASTICHE I HATE PASTICHE I HATE PASTICHE I HATE ROTE HOMAGES TO ZULAWKSI'S POSSESSION AS…

DAVID LYNCH DIED TODAY

David Lynch died today and I'm diaryposting about it on THIS movie's page (actually did rewatch, think it's like my 12th or so rw because I remain morbidly fascinated) instead of an actual Lynch film's because I just can't stop thinking...what comes next? Who fills the shoes of this monumental artist, the last American mystic... I'm reminded of the French public's reaction to the death of Victor Hugo...people from all walks of life weeping in the…