Mark Stevens

  • John Smith – Om (1986)

    1981-1990ExperimentalJohn SmithUnited Kingdom

    The buzzing of an electric razor is replaced by Om chanting as a sharp-looking man gets ready.

    Gary Davis wrote:
    This four minute film explores our response to stereotypes – aural, visual and ideological. Smith signals these stereotypes to the viewer through a chiefly associational system, which deftly manipulates the path of our expectations. The structure is stunningly simple and deceptively subtle. We are taken on a journey from one concrete stereotype to its diametric opposite, as images transform and juxtapose to, ultimately, invert our interpretation of what we see and hear.

    Peter Kubelka, ‘What is Film’ lecture series, National Film Theatre, London 2001, wrote:
    This is hardcore cinema.Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – The Snake Pit [+Commentary] (1948)

    1941-1950Anatole LitvakClassicsDramaUSA

    Shocking and highly controversial at the time of release, The Snake Pit broke new ground in Hollywood cinema for its depiction of mental illness and its treatment.

    Olivia de Havilland (Gone with the Wind; The Heiress), delivers an astounding performance as a young bride who suffers a breakdown and finds herself committed to an asylum.Read More »

  • William Keighley – The Street with No Name [+extra] (1948)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam Keighley

    http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5953/streetwithnoname.jpg

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    Quote:
    In Center City, a housewife is murdered in a night-club by a gang of thieves. When a security guard of a bank is killed by the same gun during a heist, the crime becomes a federal offense under FBI jurisdiction. When the prime suspect is released and executed in the same night, FBI Inspector George Briggs recruits the rookie agent Gene Cordell to follow the last paths of the victim undercover in the identity of George Manly. Gene meets the powerful gangster Alec Stiles in a gymnasium, and later he is invited to join his gang. Working with his also undercover liaison Cy Gordon, Gene finds evidences to incriminate Stiles. However, he discovers also that somebody from the precinct is feeding Stiles with classified information.Read More »

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