The opening scene from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) may very well be the greatest opening scene of any film ever. And I mean ever, I can’t even think of anything remotely close, save maybe the insane shoot-out from The Wild Bunch (1968) (a film which will be featured [...]
Archive for the 'films' Category
Once Upon A Time in the West – Opening Scene
Published by August 6th, 2009 in film, films, movies and scenic. 7 CommentsPart 1:
Part 2:
While I am not a huge Wim Wenders fan, there are a number of scenes I could pick from Paris, Texas (1984), which I believe to be his one and only masterpiece. I could listen to Harry Dean Stanton tell just about any story, but hearing him tell this story about a jealous [...]
Andrei Tarkovsky Talks about his favorite Directors
Published by August 2nd, 2009 in film, films and movies. 3 CommentsI love this video of Tarkovsky in his living room talking about his favorite directors. He seems so tortured and real at the same time, what a nut. I also love his analysis of Antonioni’s vision of “action” in his films, which absolutely nails Antonioni’s immense genius in my mind:
There is practically no action [...]
Ace in the Hole
Published by July 11th, 2009 in YouTube, film, film noir, films and movies. 0 CommentsThe Media Funhouse just posted about the unbelievable classic film treasures that enjoy a short, but rich life on YouTube (kinda like the cicada in August). And the two collections he links to are filled with Western and Film Noir gems. I am featuring Ace in the Hole (1951) here because it is [...]
I’m getting deeper and deeper into this issue of Filmfax, and I have to say it’s a gem. I just finished the first installment of Vincent Di Fate’s “3-D Cinema: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” which gave a nice overview of the technical details behind the emergence of 3-D cinema during the 1950s. I love this [...]
Formative 10: Escape from New York
Published by October 25th, 2008 in Formative 10, Uncategorized, films and movies. 4 CommentsWell, I guess I gotta get going on my formative 10 because what has taken me almost eight months, has taken D’Arcy Norman all of three days. I find it interesting how much a formative 10 can tell you about someone, for example given D’Arcy’s first three films it’s pretty obvious he’s a science nerd [...]
Image courtesy of Robjtak
Los Angeles is a fine town. I lived in its tepid embrace for over seven years, and I have to say it was probably seven of the best film years of my life. I think I saw as many movies in that time span as the occasional film viewer sees in a [...]
On a recent post about Clash of the Titans, Andy Best made a comment I’ve been coming back to over and over again since. The comment was the following:
And by the way, Jim, keep on plugging D&D, that game was solely responsible for getting me to read and develop in the face of school being [...]
Course Mangement Systems as the Gentrification of EdTech
Published by July 24th, 2008 in films, insructional technology and movies. 26 CommentsImage thanks to Lulu Vision
Here at UMW we have been going through a CMS Review. It has been a pretty interesting project, and while I only tangentially involved, I have been following the basic rhetorical thrust of the sales pitches from companies like Desire2Learn, BlackBoard, and Angel (well be getting in-house demos of Sakai and [...]
Last night I saw a coming attraction for the re-make of Prom Night (2008), which seemed so shiny and new compared to the original. In fact, while watching the trailer I found it to be a sign of the times of Hollywood for a couple of reasons: first, it seems an excellent example that the [...]
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