Ah, swear words! We’re taught from such a young age to abstain from using profane language that the desire to use it becomes almost inherent the older we get. An f-bomb here, a slip of the tongue there, these words have been cultivated to be an important part of our modern day vernacular, no matter how taboo they’ve been considered historically.

In film, swear words are the difference between a PG-13 or an R-rating; they’re the unforgettable final line muttered by a scorned Rhett Butler in “Gone With The Wind,” or in a whirlwind performance by Ben Kingsley in Jonathan Glazer‘s terrific “Sexy Beast.” In a new video essay from Now You See It, we learn more about the aesthetics of cursing in film.

Continue reading The Art Of Cursing In Cinema at The Playlist.

With the world at our fingertips nowadays, art forms feed into others as we are constantly inspired whether nose-deep into a great novel, or scrolling through an online catalog. And yes, life imitates art, but cinema juxtaposes both into a stunning amalgam of characters, scenery, sets, and dialogue, creating unforgettable universes of its own. Oftentimes directors take their own direction from varying forms of inspiration, whether adapting a screenplay from a book (an ongoing trend) , or creating a backdrop that adds dimension to a painting they like, a la David Lynch and his adoration for artist Edward Hopper.

Continue reading Fine Art & Film Come Together In This Supercut at The Playlist.

Whether you’re in it for the 80’s nostalgia, the reemergence of Winona Ryder, the inimitable ensemble cast of kids, or the pulsating, mind-throbbing music of S U R V I V E, “Stranger Things” has become an instant favorite and classic in its own right. The Netflix series has already been renewed for a second season appearing in 2017, but that doesn’t mean you have to solemnly eat Eggos and adorn yourself with Christmas lights until then.

Continue reading ‘Stranger Things’ Supercut Puts Together 28 Of The Best Cuts From Show at The Playlist.

As fans of both the written word and the silver screen, what do we look for in a performance when an actor portrays an author? It’s a delicate balance, an artist in their own right portraying another, and a conundrum that mirrors that of the biopic. On a more personal level, though, the actor portraying an author has a more difficult job – to exude a mimicked intellectual stamina; to envelop the essence of another human being, both inside and out.

Continue reading Supercut Celebrates Famous Actors As Famous Authors at The Playlist.

The Hollywood gender divide isn’t exclusive to acting or directing; there is a serious gap in the world of cinematography, notwithstanding some of the boundless, triumphant work that has been created by women in the past decade (and then some). For every Roger Deakins or Emmanuel Lubezki there’s a Reed Morano or a Maryse Alberti, women who have shot some of the most notoriously beautiful and breathtaking films, yet you, and even this author alike, perhaps didn’t know about all of them.

Continue reading The Extraordinary Vision Of 12 Essential Female Cinematographers at The Playlist.

The incomparable Jacques Rivette passed away in January at the age of 87 – it has been a truly heartbreaking year and we’ve lost some of the most profound people in the arts – but he left behind a tremendous oeuvre and an undying impact through the French New Wave and his other, later films. Rivette was an impulsive director in that he combined his schizophrenic tendencies to create the best of both worlds; he had his straightforward, Hitchcockian side, and he had a side like Renoir, which would encourage him to let things go.

Continue reading Walk The Streets With Jacques Rivette’s Greatest Scene In ‘Out 1’ at The Playlist.

For over three decades at the inception of cinema, silent film reigned supreme. The expressions of the actors, whether they be painted on for effect or dramatized by gesture, were the gateway into the soul of the picture; these expressions provided all the insight you’d ever need to create a soundtrack in your head. Nearly a century later, diegetic and non-diegetic sound in film is a key aspect of movie making and attending, from the screeching sounds in the “Psycho” shower scene to Peter Strickland‘s terrific thriller “Berberian Sound Studio.”

Now that sound is such an essential atmospheric element, it’s interesting to see filmmakers deliberately leave it out – not in a modernized silent picture like “The Artist,” but a calculated scene bereft of dialogue to prove a point.

Continue reading The Sounds Of Silence In Cinema at The Playlist.

Throughout his four decade career, Steven Spielberg has delivered a wide range of emotions to audiences; he’s made us cry; he’s made us laugh; he’s created archetypal characters, scenes, and films that changed the course of cinematic history. The highest grossing filmmaker to date, Spielberg is more than a household name; he’s also accepted and praised by the industry, and lauded by his peers (Kubrick, Bergman, and Scorsese to name a few).

Continue reading Rare 1-Hour Japanese Documentary Goes Behind-The-Scenes With Steven Spielberg at The Playlist.

Cinema is a language itself. It’s universally accepted, and spoken by most, whether you’re more of a fan of the visual or audio aesthetic. But within this world, we have specific and unique verbiage attributed to every film, and this adds an entirely new level of complexity. (Not in any way meant to be demeaning to the classic films of the Silent Era.) A film in any language can be distributed all over the world for other contemporaries to see despite their language of origin or upbringing.

Continue reading Video Essay Discusses The Adventures Of Film Language at The Playlist.

We’re all voyeurs as film watchers – observing from theaters, mobile devices, or our own bedrooms – wherever we are, we represent an essential aspect of film as the viewer. Though we’re oftentimes on the outside, it’s up to the directors and cinematographers to loop us in through the camerawork, set, and emotion from the actors.

READ MORE: The Entire History Of Cinematic Horror Covered In This 12-Minute Supercut

In a video essay by Steven Benedict, he explores director Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto‘s approach to the 1991 sensation “The Silence of the Lambs,” and how the film’s point of view is established through meticulous camera movement – it’s visualization before verbalization.

Continue reading Look Into The Eyes Of ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ at The Playlist.

The fertile mind of Lars von Trier has been remanufacturing the idylls of cinema for four decades. From developing the stylistic edict Dogme 95 with fellow director Thomas Vinterberg to winning numerous awards at Cannes and other festivals, von Trier has made a name for himself in being inexplicably unique – in both his career as a director, and as an outspoken critic of movie making itself.

Continue reading Lars Von Trier’s Deconstructive, Avant Garde Cinema at The Playlist.

When asked what he thought of 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Andrei Tarkovsky dismissed the film as “cold and sterile.” He set out to make an “anti-2001,” which would become 1972’s epic “Solaris,” a Cannes Grand Jury Prize-winning masterpiece. This is not to say that Stanley Kubrick‘s film is not a masterpiece; in fact, the two films are undoubtedly related whether or not Tarkovsky was willing to admit it.

Continue reading Parallels: The Cinematic Imagery Of Stanley Kubrick & Andrei Tarkovsky at The Playlist.

There’s a reason Stanley Kubrick‘s “Barry Lyndon” won several Oscars, including Best Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design: It seamlessly replicates William Makepeace Thackeray‘s novel “The Luck of Barry Lyndon” and creates a stunning atmosphere in which a lurid young Irishman (Ryan O’Neil) destroys his privileged life by spying and amounting large debts. ‘Lyndon,’ aside from boasting a beautiful classical soundtrack and some aptly stoic performances, looks more than any other film like a string of paintings; it’s fine art brought to life, as only Stanley Kubrick could have done.

Continue reading Parallels: Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’ And Fine Art at The Playlist.

No one manipulated light like Sven Nykvist. Perhaps the greatest cinematographer of our time, the Swedish-born, two time Oscar-winner (“Cries and Whispers,” “Fanny and Alexander“) saw something in people and their surroundings that most of us can hardly fathom. He was a true master, working with notable directors such as Roman Polanski (“The Tenant“), Louis Malle (“Black Moon,” “Pretty Baby“), Philip Kaufman (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being“), Andrei Tarkovsky (“The Sacrifice“), and Woody Allen (“Celebrity,” “Crimes & Misdemeanors“).

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Richard Strauss may never have dreamed that his 1896 tone poem, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus spoke Zarathustra,” would be infamous thanks to the use of the fanfare in Stanley Kubrick‘s stunning 1968 “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Then again, if Strauss were alive at the time, perhaps he’d of picked Kubrick to direct a version of “Salome” on the stage (what I would give to see that).

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Michelangelo Antonioni’s reputation precedes him; he was a favorite of Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, and Andrei Tarkovsky — and panned by Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles who couldn’t comprehend his long shots and “humorless” content. All opinions aside, Antonioni was a masterful, artistic genius, and with his “trilogy” (three films that were not intentionally connected, were just coined as so because of their parallel themes of modernity) featuring 1960’s “L’Avventura,” 1961’s “La Notte,” and 1962’s “L’Eclisse” he caught the deserved attention of critics and patrons alike.

Continue reading Discover The Versatility Of Monica Vitti In Michelangelo Antonioni’s Films In This Video Essay at The Playlist.

Woody Allen loves to toy with the ideas of his heroes and contemporaries, and in 1989’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” he turned to one of the greatest novelists ever to exist, Fyodor Dostoevsky. The author’s finest work (in this author’s humble opinion) and a must-read for any literati or cinephile alike, “Crime and Punishment,” was Allen’s specific inspiration for the film, and provided a backdrop of existential angst and dogmatism.

Continue reading Watch: On The ‘Blinding Moral Gaze’ In Woody Allen’s ‘Crimes And Misdemeanors’ at The Playlist.

The Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games,” “Pleasantville“)-helmed “Free State of Jones” starring the one and only Matthew McConaughey is slated to hit theaters nationwide this weekend, bringing the Oscar-winner back to dramatic territory as he plays Newt Knight, a farmer during the Civil War who decided to take matters into his own hands. In order to fight back against the Confederacy, Knight joins forces with other small farms and local slaves to defend what they believe in.

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Alas, poor Yorick — you fellow of infinite jest and most excellent fancy — your dedication may be cut from the screenplay depending on who is directing the adaptation! “Hamlet,” widely considered to be William Shakespeare’s finest work, has inspired creative endeavors like David Foster Wallace book titles, other plays like Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead,” and poems by T.S.

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Sex sells. And that goes for all forms it comes in: music, fine art, and cinema. Nowadays, even incest doesn’t seem to shock us too much (looking at you, “Game of Thrones“), but there was a time when even showing a bare midriff was considered quite the scandal. Strong sexual content has certainly come a long way since the silent era with films like “Blue is the Warmest Color” winning at Cannes and Lars von Trier‘s “Nymphomaniac” and “Antichrist” developing a following of their own.

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Lately, lauded cinematography has been full of nature-porn wide shots (looking at you, “The Revenant“) and catchy camera movement (ok, maybe just you, Emmanuel Lubezki). For a film to be recognized and receive accolades for its camerawork, the effects need to be stellar (pun intended), or full of inventive shots that focus and refocus your attention (“Children Of Men,” etc.). Films like “Citizen Kane” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” are still commended for their behind-the-scenes handiwork, and all these films represent a loud approach to viewing a film.

Continue reading Look Through The Lens: The Cinematography Of Yasujiro Ozu’s ‘Floating Weeds’ at The Playlist.

“We didn’t need dialogue, we had faces,” quips Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder‘s “Sunset Boulevard.” And the starlet is right: Before dialogue-heavy independent films were the toast of the town, directors like Carl Theodor Dreyer and his “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc” and D.W. Griffith‘s obsession with Lillian Gish‘s angelic face were examples of cinema’s paramount shots.

Continue reading Every Face Tells A Story: The Language Of Cinema at The Playlist.

Cinema gives filmmakers an opportunity to be a modern-day Chronos: They can manipulate the time in their feature to their liking, whether it be in flashback dreamscape like Bernardo Bertolucci‘s “The Conformist” or tattooed on an amnesiac like in Christopher Nolan‘s “Memento.” Not only can the film be manipulated in execution, but a range of shots can be used to exemplify forward, or backward, timeliness.

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The #OscarsSoWhite controversy may have dwindled momentarily, but it’s clear that there are major issues in the film industry that need to be mended when it comes to women and people of color. Even Google recognized film pioneer Lotte Reiniger recently with their interactive animation, so when the general public and massive companies like that are in the know, the Hollywood problem is only highlighted as being that much more serious.

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Any fan of cheap paperbacks or blood-curdling cinema has heard of giallo, a term derived from the Italian word for yellow — the color of the cheap, mystery novels most of the genre is based on. Authors like Ellery Queen, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie were translated into Italian and sold through Il Giallo Mondadori, serving as firsthand inspiration for some sexy, Italian cinema.

Continue reading Sensual Bloody Cinema: The Beginner’s Guide To ’70s Italian Giallo at The Playlist.