Tag Archives: Leos Carax

Blacula + Pola X

Blacula + Pola X

Wrestling with the history of exploitation film. Film is wonderful worker exploitation is bad, and adding race makes everything more complicated. Can we still celebrate the art of those who were exploited? Film as historical documents. The additional context provided by Horror Noir. French Extreme was not a planned movement! How the New French Extremity came to be by accident. French extreme films still call for directors to make work that is very much their own. New French Extremity became horror because horror directors starting making New French Extremity. CinĂ©ma du look and what France considers an “over-stylized film.” Leos Carax is Mr. X. Introducing real sex: unstimulated sex in French brings on a wave of actual sex acts captured between actors on film. Finally, the bleak truth of human existence is confronted in one of Alice’s favorite all-time scenes. Continue reading

Cosmopolis + Holy Motors

Cosmopolis + Holy Motors

Character arcs despite their narratives! Narratives as complications of vignettes! Robert Pattinson, the obvious choice for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis. Pop fiction fans read cerebral novels and everyone wins. Following a movie with indecipherable dialogue. The relationship to Videodrome. When master lose grip. Economies collapse, characters collapse. The currency of dogecoin, er, rats. Economics and philosophy, with your host Paul Giamatti. Crypto-currency and Snapchat. What is to be gained through watching Holy Motors? Big questions, out of the gate. Monsieur Oscar is losing the fire. Drifting into the abstract. Trying on masks, metaphorically. Trying to pin down the jobs and tasks of characters in Holy Motors. Continue reading