"if you don't I shall cut my throat or go to the pictures"
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The Third Man 1949
You never can really understand other people’s relationships. Harry is elusive, illusive — neither is he what he seems to be and what he actually is is as difficult to grasp as he himself is for the police. The famous final chase through the sewers is not only a search through the bowels of a broken city — the only part of it still coherent and functional, seemingly — but it’s also the attempt to grapple with the character everybody…
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Wuthering Heights 1954
I believe that WUTHERING HEIGHTS is one of the three or four greatest novels of the 19th century; its power largely comes from its frame narratives — the story is entirely told by nesting doll narrators, sometimes three or if I recall correctly four deep. Ignoring questions of “reliability,” what is so interesting about these narrators is that their presence disrupts a stable sense of tone. A scene, with its intense passions, may be funny or romantic, sad or ironic.…
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Licorice Pizza 2021
one of the first things gary says to alana is that they aren't going to forget each other. many detractors of the film have cited (without having the vocabulary) the picaresque plot and the rotating cast of characters as making the film loose or poorly structured. but is that not the point? alana and gary are traipsing through a myriad of adventures featuring the zaniest of san fernando's citizens and the film is literally forgetting them, while our protagonists themselves…
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Licorice Pizza 2021
like many of pta's later films, this is a film about two intertwined people, but i think it's also clear that this is more a film about alana than gary. it's a film about what it means to be desired by men, and what to do with that desire, and how to feel about it. even more than phantom thread, this is anderson making a movie about a woman and her feelings.