Michael Mann is one of the most prominent filmmakers of his time – one with his own distinct style and themes that are synonymous with him. His upcoming film – Ferrari has been announced – and there’s a good chance it might be his last. To honor Mann and celebrate his upcoming film, I ranked all of his films. Continue reading Ranking the Mann
Film noir is best described as a time and place in American cinema – where filmmakers were becoming increasingly cynical and disillusioned with American life due to many things: the war, the depression (which just ended), and maybe a little bit because of constraints many filmmakers were forced to adhere to in order to make a Hollywood film. As Paul Schrader says, “film noir is not a genre.” Instead it’s more a style defined by shadowy lighting, sleazy locations, and themes of isolation, alienation, and pessimism. The most important thing to remember about film noir was that its creation wasn’t intentional – especially by the studios. But by the time anyone realized what was happening – it was too late to stop the surge of noirs that would dominate the mid-40s and the mid-50s. Continue reading Early Development of Noir and its Lasting Allure
Miami Film Festival’s GEMS 2022 has just wrapped at Miami’s Tower Theater. The fall mini-festival is a one-week precursor to the Miami Film Festival (MIFF) that takes place in March. The festival started in 2014 as MIFFecito, but rebranded the following year as GEMS Film Festival. GEMS is advertised as presenting “the jewels of the fall season” with the “biggest awards contenders of the year” according to the director of programming at GEMS, Lauren Cohen. This year, the Tower Theater’s contract with the city has been terminated so although the festival’s future is uncertain the people there seem hopeful that it will not be the last. FIU Film Studies interns Kevin de los Cuetos and Tatiana Nunez were lucky enough to watch a few of the films played at GEMS this past week. Here are the highlights of what they saw: Continue reading GEMS 2022 Mini-Festival Dispatch
The ninth annual Miami GEMS film festival will take place between Nov 3rd- Nov10th. A more focused precursor to the Miami Film Festival, GEMS aims to showcase the most talked about festival hits, from crowd-pleasing spectacles by big-named directors to homegrown hidden “gems.” This year, GEMS made an in-person comeback with a party on opening night and special award presentations. Check out some of the movies to watch: Continue reading Miami Film Festival GEMS 2022
After the run of success from his first three films, all of which fall under the genre of giallo, Italian director Dario Argento didn’t want to confine himself to the horror box. So, he followed up his acclaimed Animal Trilogy with The Five Days, a Sergio Leone-influenced historical drama-comedy about the Italian Revolution. There is a world where this movie made a fortune at the box office and where Argento would continue to make films that drift away from the horror genre. Fortunately, this didn’t happen – and Argento was forced to make a return to giallo films, where he crafted maybe his most definitive entry in the genre. Continue reading Flashback Flick – Deep Red: A Symphony of Sleaze
The Fall 2022 Film Studies Crew presents our top picks for the fall season. Throw on a knitted sweater, grab a warm mug of coffee, and enjoy!
There is a scene a little bit less than halfway through Blonde, where Marilyn Monroe receives a standing ovation after the premiere of her film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She’s shedding quiet tears as she is surrounded by applause, whistles, and the adoration of everyone in the room. Marilyn then thinks to herself, “for this, you killed your baby.” It’s around here that you might get the idea that director Andrew Dominik does not like Marilyn Monroe all that much. Continue reading Even When We’re Inside Her Womb, Blonde is a Boring and Trite Marilyn Portrait