Other volumes can be found here. And don’t forget to click for larger images!

Image from: My Own Private Idaho | Gus Van Sant, 1991

My Own Private Idaho, Gus Van Sant’s controversial take on the William Shakespeare play Henry IV, is a film that confused me greatly to begin with, but I soon came to love. It’s not a film that many will point out for its use of photography, but there are one or two shots that have remained with me. River Phoenix’s character Mike is particularly intriguing, and it’s his journey that propels the film forward. Van Sant uses numerous shots of this seemingly endless road so as to symbolise his central character’s plight. The film closes with the words; “I’m a connoisseur of roads. I’ve been tasting roads my whole life. This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world…” as Mike finally comes to understand the reason for his existence. These scenes, drenched in an evocative yellow tone, are for me the highlight of the film. I love the well-trodden allusion that Van Sant draws, linking roads to life and visa versa, but none of this would have been quite as effective without these expansive perspective shots.

Image from: Nights of Cabiria | Federico Fellini, 1957

Somebody already pointed out a distinct lack of close shots in the first volume of Evocative Images in Film, so this timeless image from Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria should make up for that. The image is taken from one of my- nay, my favourite closing scene in all of Italian cinema. Cabiria is a down-on-her-luck prostitute played by Giulietta Masina, a character who could only be described as a saintly fool. She is a hopeless – or perhaps hapless – romantic who falls for every man who shows her something more than just lust, and has been has more than her fair share of disastrous romantic conclusions. As the film draws to a close, Cabiria robbed and dumped once again beside a riverbank. As she walks down the road back to the city she is surrounded by a group of people, singing and laughing to traditional music. This music, so spontaneous and uplifting inspires a smile on her tear-glazed face, ensuring us that her soul is still in one piece and life goes on.

Image from: There Will Be Blood | Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007

Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is a film full of symmetrical shots. Whether or not this was a conscious decision by the director is unknown to me, but it certainly makes for wonderful viewing. In this particular scene, the main character Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) begins to realise that his so-called “brother” is trying to put one over him. The pair celebrate the arrival of their new oil pipeline by taking a dip in the local bay, and it’s a scene brimming with furious undertones. Paul Thomas Anderson uses the classic approach of framing both characters, keeping one in the shade and one in the dark, yet maintaining the symmetrical nature of most of the film’s photography. It’s also a refreshing scene, visually-speaking, in a film where most of the first and second act takes place in a dusty, barren part of America. There Will Be Blood is a visual feat, this is certain, and most of that is down to the seasoned hand of Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Elswit.

Image from: Gladiator | Ridley Scott, 2000

This image taken from Ridley Scott’s Roman epic Gladiator is yet another example of a film using dark and light to signify good and evil. The scene is yet another landscape one, I’m afraid, but one that holds so much meaning. The scene precedes an important point in the film where its hero Maximus finds that his family home has been pillaged. He races back but to no avail, and this sweeping image of rolling green hills tells it all. It would be an idyllic scene if it wasn’t for the black smoke that appears to be billowing from among the distant trees, and this is used to symbolise the dark nature of that which has occured. Gladiator is full this kind of impressive landscape shot, and it’s easy to see why someone as experienced as Ridley Scott has ensured the involvement of cinematographer John Mathieson in every project of his since. I enjoy how the image doesn’t include a house, either, for that would have appeared perhaps too dramatic. As it is, we can’t see where the house is in relation to the smoke, all we know is that the two statues either side of the road signify that someone does indeed live on that fateful hill.

Image from: Manhattan | Woody Allen, 1978

Many filmmakers have put New York City on celluloid, but few as effectively as the great Woody Allen. His 1978 film Manhattan is arguably his most comprehensive work in a career spanning more than four decades as a director. As I’ve written about previously, it’s often a single image that helps capture and preserve the memory of a given film – and with Manhattan, it is this one. It seems that all the great New York filmmakers approach the illustrating of their great city in a different way; whether it be Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet or Woody Allen, there’s always something different to be found. Allen’s New York is by far my favourite, as he’s usually always so obsessed with the city’s people rather than the city itself. This single image from Manhattan goes against that idea, but goes some way in explaining the man’s love for his hometown. Set to the booming classical music of George Gershwin, Manhattan is a celebration of New York more than anything else, and this single image helps capture that perfectly.

Thanks for reading, and expect another volume of Evocative Images in Film very soon! Meanwhile, please feel free to make suggestions for images that could be involved in the next volume.

Per sollazzarvi al fresco (per quanto possibile) davanti a un bel film, sulla terrazza del municipio (piazzale della Resistenza) ha preso il via il cinema all’aperto con le notti di Cabiria. Qui la programmazione, dal sito degli Amici del Cabiria (dal 28 giugno al 24 luglio):

Giugno

 

Giorno	Ora	Film
sabato 28	21.30	Tutta la vita davanti
domenica 29	21.30	Caos calmo
lunedì 30	21.30	Caos calmo

 

Luglio

 

Giorno	Ora	Film
martedì 1	21.30	Il cacciatore di aquiloni
mercoledì 2	21.30	Gomorra
giovedì 3	21.30	Gomorra
venerdì 4	21.30	Bianco e nero
sabato 5	21.30	Caramel
domenica 6	21.30	Il divo
lunedì 7	21.30	Il divo
martedì 8	21.30	Irina Palm
mercoledì 9	21.30	Into the wild
giovedì 10	21.30	Into the wild
venerdì 11	21.30	In amore niente regole
sabato 12	21.30	Grande, grosso e verdone
domenica 13	21.30	Tutta la vita davanti
lunedì 14	21.30	Tutta la vita davanti
martedì 15	21.30	L’altra donna del Re
mercoledì 16	21.30	Non è un paese per vecchi
giovedì 17	21.30	Non è un paese per vecchi
venerdì 18	21.30	Non pensarci
sabato 19	21.30	Gomorra
domenica 20	21.30	Indiana Jones e il regno del teschio di cristallo
lunedì 21	21.30	Indiana Jones e il regno del teschio di cristallo
martedì 22	21.30	Onora il padre e la madre
mercoledì 23	21.30	Sex and the city
giovedì 24	21.30	Sex and the city

Teatro, musica, letteratura, poesie, architettura, cinema; in una parola cultura. E’ quanto ha organizzato Scandicci Cultura per l’estate scandiccese 2008. La quinta edizione di Open City, che avrà inizio il 19 giugno per terminare il 31 luglio, si svolgerà tra il Giardino Pomario del Castello dell’Acciaiolo, piazza Matteotti, piazza Togliatti e la terrazza del municipio.

Accanto alle serate di arte e musica proposte da Gingerzone in piazza Togliatti e alla musica e al teatro in vernacolo dell’Open Cafè in piazza Matteotti, si aggiunge un ricco cartellone culturale. Queste le anticipazioni annunciate sull’ultimo numero di Città Comune:

• MUSICA: il programma musicale, curato da Giancarlo Cauteruccio e Volfango Dami, si aprirà con il concerto di Gianmaria Testa, il 19 giugno alle ore 21:30 nel giardino Pomario del Castello dell’Acciaiolo; da segnalare anche la rassegna “Musica in Villa” presso Villa di Vico, a San Vincenzo a Torri, dedicata alla musica antica, dal medioevo al barocco;
• TEATRO: il cartellone teatrale “Femmine & Femmine” (al Castello dell’Acciaiolo) vedrà le protagoniste impegnate a esplorare la figura della donna, tra mito e tempo contemporaneo, attraverso monologhi e musica dal vivo; dislocato in punti diversi della città invece il teatro per ragazzi con la compagnia del Teatro dell’Archivolto;
• POESIA  E LETTERATURA: ancora al Castello dell’Acciaiolo, la serie di incontri “Le voci della poesia” curata da Lorenzo Bertolani (al cui interno si terrà una serata speciale in memoria del poeta scandiccese Altamante Logli) e la presentazione di libri “La lingua della scrittura”, a cura di Mauro Bagni;
• ARTE: sono previste l’esposizione delle opere del ceramista Paolo Staccioli e la mostra “Bad Boys” curata da Pietro Gaglianò, dal tema “Ribellismo giovanile e tribù urbane nelle visioni degli artisti contemporanei”;
• CINEMA: sulla terrazza del municipio (piazzale della Resistenza) tornerà il cinema all’aperto con ”Le Notti di Cabiria“, dal 28 giugno al 31 agosto (la programmazione al momento non è nota).

AGGIORNAMENTO 17/06/2008: è scaricabile il programma dettagliato di Open City 2008 (file pdf).