Tag: surveillance

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Managing the Crisis Rather than Breaking the Machine: The Prophetic Paranoia of Francesco Rosi’s Illustrious Corpses

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|Victoria Breshears| Francesco Rosi’s 1976 political thriller Illustrious Corpses begins with us watching a high court judge move past rows of clothed, desiccated mummies within the Capuchin Catacombs. While this opening scene signals mortality to be an important theme for the movie… Continue reading

Do You Hear What I Hear?: The Salacious Self-Flagellation of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out

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Medium close-up of a ponderous John Travolta (as soundman Jack Terry) in a maroon collared shirt leaning over with a cigarette in his right hand in the foreground, thumb pressed against the forehead. In the background are film reels and various editing equipment.

|Chris Polley| A man takes a photograph, inspiring another to write a story, inspiring another to make a film, inspiring another to…make another film. This is how it works now, losing the magic and mystery of folktales passed down generation upon generation via oral storytelling but gaining the benefits of … Continue reading

Paranoia, Failure, and Female Representation: Brian De Palma’s Blow Out

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Jack, a young light-skinned man with dark hair, and Sally, a young woman with blonde curly hair, are standing on a train starting platform facing each other, with side characters and trains in the background.

|Penny Folger| “There was no bigger disaster than Blow Out,” reminisces director Brian De Palma on the reception his film received when it was originally released in 1981. It’s a film that, 43 years later, is held in much higher esteem, even cited by Quentin Tarantino as… Continue reading