symbolism
Arrival and Hell or High Water are both allegorical, effective films from last year, yet they also tend to state their themes too bluntly.
Introducing the new Film Inquiry YouTube video series Decipher, with Laura Birnbaum, where we will be using history, literature, art, and film to translate the hidden meanings within the films we love.
I’ve been fascinated by the number of times film makers take us into a church setting. The question is why do this? Whether bathed in the light of stained glass or under the gaze of a crucifix, there must be a method or reasoning behind this decision.
Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a fictional transcendence of classic Greek mythos through the ubiquity of the motion picture camera. As the film’s title suggests, this is Greek philosopher Homer’s The Odyssey told on the grandest of scales and sparing no expense that 20th Century cinema had to offer.
Mad Max: Fury Road, the latest from Australian director George Miller, is overtly, and perhaps primarily, an action film. The vast majority of its two hour runtime is devoted to a single unrelenting chase sequence; it both drives the narrative and provides a platform for the manic and brilliantly staged action set-pieces which will define the film for many audiences.
