Saturday, March 31, 2012

zombi 2 (1979)

If people within those networks have known fears and hopes, it should be simple to play on those fears and hopes to spread alleged facts and indeed to ensure that a belief in those allegations becomes a kind of ghost, hovering over its victim, or even that it becomes deeply entrenched.

Cass Sunstein,
'On Rumors'

Monday, March 26, 2012

the saint (1997)











an overwhelmingly silly film. everything is dependent on distraction :: expert dynamic-range sound design // neutrally professional supporting character actors // fair and expressive technical lighting // quick and diverting montage // cartoonish plot and blocking tone // intellectual reach for the dumbest in the crowd (down to the scene of professionals slowly explaining what a 'vital' term / idea is see, winston zeddemore) // and, almost of highest importance in investment-productions as this picture, the occult chosen and emotionally embedded stars. val kilmer drowns in the attempt :: yes, the old man disguise which is harked to at the very end is a clever bit of living room entertainment, but he does not carry the hypnotizing element of presence that is required for what his momentary-narcissism probably assumed to be an interesting role. elizabeth shue is placed in front of a camera only to magnetize, create, heighten, and affirm male desires and female perceptions. the intermittent shots of brain adrenaline from scenes such as, where for a second, it is assumed shue may give kilmer a blowjob in the back of the police van, i'm sure, helps cloud the spectator's perception of their genuine aesthetic enjoyment of the work versus a conditioned response. in this way, it is all so evil. the one aspect of the entire picture that intrigued me at all is the inclusion of cold fusion. COLD FUSION. why did this conversation stop in the popular media? as far as science goes, it ranks just above astrology. that such an anti-authority / anti-capitalist esoteric technology is united in association with such positive emotional-aesthetic designed reactions, even at the highest level of the cultural-state powers (the ideal formerly centered in, and known as, Hollywood) ... this combination is something to be explored. it's not whether cold fusion is possible or not. this is regardless. it's a matter of allowing a physical-psychic space for these kind of ideas, intentions, associations, and denials or affirmations of value, to occur. this is what propaganda does. to constantly and positively affirm cold fusion will never be the cause of cold fusion itself, but will serve to constantly highlight a direction in our society's unfolding story. we need more action films about cold fusion.

Friday, March 23, 2012

pickpocket (1959)

...instead of learning about others we labour only to teach them about ourselves and are more concerned to sell our own wares than to purchase new ones. In our commerce with others, silence and modesty are most useful qualities...

Michel de Montaigne,
'On Educating Children'

Thursday, March 22, 2012

a clockwork orange (1971)

The Hamburg account was the last cover story on racial defilement. Several 1943 issues praised the Nuremberg Laws for having maintained the purity of German blood, but there were to be no further vivid cover stories of rape and defilement. There were few Jews left in Germany, and German womanhood was now 'safe'. But the Stürmer was duller... Formerly it had been packed with every manner of lively scandal, sex, bribery, corruption, and dirty dealings, all of which seemed likely to befall any German who failed to keep assiduous watch on every Jew he encountered. But during the war Allied bombs were a more immediate threat than the high prices or decayed meat of the long-departed Jewish shopkeeper. The conspiracy was no longer visible; no longer could a reader act. The Stürmer had become a journal of international affairs... The vivid crudity that was Streicher's hallmark vanished with the Jews who went to Auschwitz.

Randall L. Bytwerk,
'Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-semitic Newspaper Der Sturmer'

Monday, March 19, 2012

night train to munich (1940)



















...the resistance of the individual is fragmentary and sporadic when compared to the continuous assault of modern propaganda.

Randall L. Bytwerk,
'Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-semitic Newspaper Der Sturmer'

Friday, March 9, 2012

mickey one (1965)


I call beauty a social quality; for where women and men, and not only they, but when other animals give us a sense of joy and pleasure in beholding them, (and there are many that do so) they inspire us with sentiments of tenderness and affection towards their persons; we like to have them near us, and we enter willingly into a kind of relation with them, unless we should have strong reasons to the contrary. 
But to what end, in many cases, this was designed, I am unable to discover; for I see no greater reason for a connection between man and several animals who are attired in so engaging a manner, than between him and some others who entirely want this attraction, or possess it in a far weaker degree. But it is probable, that providence did not make even this distinction, but with a view to some great end, though we cannot perceive distinctly what it is, as his wisdom is not our wisdom, nor our ways his ways.
— Edmund Burke, 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

collateral (2004)

the exchange of information intensifies preexisting beliefs

Saturday, March 3, 2012

they live (1988)











The experience we have of our lives from within, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in order to account for what we are doing, is fundamentally a lie —
the truth lies outside, in what we do.


Slavoj Žižek, 'Violence'