The camera work of any film literally brings audiences into the action of a story. However, a risk for any cinematographer is the long take, a form in cinema that immerses the audience but runs the risk of being noticeable, removing the audience from the story to acknowledge that what they are watching is a film.

AlltimeMovies gives a brief history of the long take and produces various examples of the difficult form, noting the risks and the payoffs of the style of camera work.

Continue reading Sit Back With The Art Of The Long Take at The Playlist.

Continuing our year-by-year series of the Best Films of the 1990s (here’s 1990, and 1991), we come to 1992. This was the year in which the Maastricht Treaty was signed, bringing the currently Brexit-hounded European Union into being; and in the U.S., a billionaire businessman running for president lost to a Clinton. But lest that makes you look back on the year with nostalgia from your jaded 2017 viewpoint, don’t forget it was also the year of the Rodney King riots.

Continue reading The 10 Best Films Of 1992 at The Playlist.

Robert Altman had a career like few others in the history of American film. A war hero who flew 50 bombing missions in the Pacific, Altman worked first in industrial films and then in television, producing dozens of episodes in the 1950s and beyond. He then racked up three feature films plus one co-directed documentary (“The James Dean Story“) by the end of the 1960s, though none had made much impact.

Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Robert Altman at The Playlist.