When Avatar was released in 2009, I was convinced not just that the film was doing really smart things with stereoscopic (3D) filmmaking, but that it was a master class in the possibilities of cinematic intensity. Intensity will strike many of you as an elusive and even fuzzy aesthetic and psychological term. Is the “too-muchness”…
Category: Film Style and Stylistics
What to Look for in AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (Cameron, 2022): A Primer on 3D Aesthetics
James Cameron’s sequel Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) is set for release this coming week. (Here’s a trailer.) For those of us who care about the art of 3D filmmaking, this has all the makings of a big event indeed. So I wanted to take a moment to prime my readers to think about…
Zato, Zato…: Singing the Praises of the First Four Zatoichi Films (1962–1963)
I’ve been asked the question many times throughout my research on James Bond and the media franchise: have you seen the original Zatoichi films starring Shintaro Katsu? Well, now I have–the first four, that is: The Tale of Zatoichi (Misumi, 1962), The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Mori, 1962), New Tale of Zatoichi (Tanaka, 1963), and…
The Poetics of Serial Narratives: An Interview with Czech Film and Media Scholar Radomír D. Kokeš
This installment of Moving Patterns is a first: an interview with a scholar about their work. Depending on how this little venture is received, I may turn interviews into a semi-regular feature. How do serial narratives in film and TV work? What makes a serial narrative hang together? Franchises and shows as distinct as the…
“The Invention of Robert Bresson” and Its Sequels: Free E-book and Links
A quick update: To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its publication, I have elected to make The Invention of Robert Bresson: The Auteur and His Market (2017) available as a free e-book here (click on “Download PDF” to open). Since its release, the book, I am happy to say, has been well received, with reviews…
The Parametric Promise of Promising Young Woman (Fennell, 2020)
Promising Young Woman (2020) by first-time director Emerald Fennell is a film that is likely to be discussed and debated for some time to come, and rightly so. Fennell has made a movie with a point. Though not without its nuances, it favors dramatized polemic. It forcefully jogs us from our complacency. It is, in…
“Bresson is still very young…”: Introducing the First Piece Ever Written on Robert Bresson’s Style—and It Features 7 “Lost” Works
Recent discoveries are changing how we view the career of French auteur Robert Bresson (1901–1999). It no longer seems adequate to describe his artistic output as modest, for example. And nor can his reputation for precise, conceptual, even “spiritual” art be ascribed solely to his feature film career (1943–1983). Before we get to some recent…
(Un)Natural Forms: The Parametric Style in Recent Documentary Series
Briefly checking in with an observation about recent documentary series, some available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and DisneyPlus. I’ve long been a fanatic of nature shows, and the last decade or so (perhaps more) has seen an uptick in “quality” documentary series, probably as a result of the influence of David Attenborough’s award-winning Planet Earth…
What Can Formalism Teach Us about Seriality? Some Remarks on Frank Kelleter’s Media of Serial Narrative (2017)
This is a rather heady entry, an attempt to work through some questions of method. As I continue to research my book on James Bond and the franchise’s multimedia storytelling, I’ve had to confront some basic questions related to seriality itself. What is it exactly? And how should we study it? The answers I propose…
Out of Order? The Unorthodox Shot/Reverse Shot Style of ISLE OF DOGS (Anderson, 2018)
I’ve finally caught Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (2018). I must confess. I’m not the greatest admirer of Anderson’s movies. Don’t get me wrong. One my favorite styles of moviemaking is what critics call the parametric style. I adore films that rely on intricate visual and acoustic patterning “for their own sake.” But Anderson’s approach…
Moving Patterns 