Self-exiled from the Soviet Union, Andrei Tarkovsky went to Italy. In a highly symbolical, elliptical form, Nostalghia refers to this visit. Consider, for example, the glorious opening: a long-shot, in soft black-and-white, in which female figures, apparently peasants, rendered tiny by distance, their backs facing us, move farther away from the camera at a dreamily […]
Daily Archives: November 3, 2007
The following is one of the entries from my 100 Greatest Films from Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal list, which I invite you to visit on this site if you haven’t already done so. — Dennis Not long after the Spanish Civil War, in a small village, a family’s conflicts mirror a divided nation. Gloria […]
The following is one of the entries from my 100 Greatest Films from Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal list, which I invite you to visit on this site if you haven’t already done so. — Dennis Hauntingly beautiful, Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece is cinema’s greatest foray into biblical territory—and its least dogmatic. A commemorative reenactment by […]
The following is one of the entries from my 100 Greatest Films from Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal list, which I invite you to visit on this site if you haven’t already done so. — Dennis Federico García Lorca’s 1932 play Bodas de sangre was based on an actual murder involving feuding families; for Alfredo […]
In Children Remember the Holocaust excerpts from actual diaries and letters written by young Holocaust victims, some who perished, some who survived, are read over pertinent black-and-white images culled from film and photographic archives. These match-ups of visuals and voiceover haunt; the technique is fluent, as pans and zooms are delicately applied to stills and, […]
Dennis Grunes 