Announce Your Intention (2008)

An unusual DVD containing a psi-research experiment inspired by the Princeton Engineering Anomolies Research Lab

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Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail - Akira Kurosawa (1945)

Unusual fusion of Noh, Kabuki and Western theater traditions captured on film. Almost a musical. Made during WWII so budgets for sets were extremely limited.

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Drumin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary - Massachusetts Audubon Society

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The King Canute Crowd - Eddie Campbell (~1984)

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The Creek Runs Red - Bradley Beesley, Julianna Brannum (2007)

Screened on Independent Lens, PBS

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Shade - Andrew Plotkin (2010)

Alone in your one-room apartment ready for a trip to the desert. Or are you? Creepy set-piece open to many interpretations.

First IF I've played all the way through on my iPhone.

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Sanshiro Sugata - Akira Kurosawa (1943)

Akira Kurosawa's first film as a director. The initiation of a Judo student through Zen-like mind state. Violence always begins in static form and resolves quickly. Lightning cuts at times. Kurosawa's signature wipes (especially in the stair sequence). Watch the camera move like a wandering eye or a lighting bird.

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The Secret of Nikola Tesla - Krsto Papic (1980)

Made for TV(?) Croatian bio pic about the Serbian inventor. Has fairly impressive sets and props that are faithful to Tesla's inventions and photos of his labs from the time. Includes some on-the-out American actors of the time: Orson Welles, Strother Martin and Dennis Patrick. Also stars Oja Kodar, Welles' lover and creative partner later in his life.

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Othello - William Shakespeare

Produced by the Actors Shakespeare Project. Staged at Villa Victoria

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Daredevil: Born Again - Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli (1986)

How the heck did Mazzucchelli evolve from this kind of artwork to the art in Asterios Polyp?

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Achewood Vol. V: An Empty Cup of Rum - Chris Onstadt (2004)

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Short Films by Osamu Tezuka

Pictures at an Exhibition (1966)

The Genesis (1968)

Broken Down Film (1985)

Push (1987)

Self-Portrait (1988)

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City of Glass - Paul Auster, adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli (1994)

Graphic novel adaptation of the novel by Auster. Made after Mazzucchelli made the transition from mainstream to alt comics.

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King Lear - Peter Brooks w/ Orson Welles (1953)

An abbreviated production (75min) of the play performed live for the Omnibus television show. Unusual sets for the time and fantastic acting. This version drops the subplots and focuses just on Lear and his daughters.

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Woman in the Moon - Fritz Lang (1929)

Final major German silent film. UFA spies, Bauhaus furniture, and Braunian rockets lead to a gold-desolate planet. Supposedly the first depiction of a countdown to launch. Serious science, but poor drama. The first 40 espionage-filled minutes before the launch are the best, especially a clever car-stuck-in-traffic switchover that presages Mabuse.

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Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli (2009)

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Death Note: The Last Name - Shusuke Kaneko (2006)

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The Donkey Show - Diane Paulus

At Club Oberon

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Graphic Classics: Edgar Allan Poe (2006)

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Cloverfield - Matt Reeves (2008)

Godzilla as a factuality. Clever structure (multiple camera 'operators') and motivation for the character filming the events. Based on the marketing campaign, I didn't expect to actually see the monster.

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My Voyage to Italy - Martin Scorsese (1999)

4-hour documentary on Italian film. Personal view of a person who grew up with these films. Maybe a little to heavy on 'spoilers' around the films, but you can sense his excitement about the experiences.

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Death Note - Shusuke Kaneko (2006)

Japanese made-for-tv (I think) movie of the popular manga series. Extremely slick, but I liked this better than I thought I would. Great story.

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Paradise Lost Lecture Series - John Rodgers

Series of 12 lectures by Prof. John Rodgers of Yale on John Milton's Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost - Clifford Odets (1935)

Family tries to hold the center through the depression. A huge cast with no one left unimplicated. 1930s themes transported to a relevant time. HUGE video projection both in real time and past time. Honking resolution.

At the American Repertory Theater

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Memories of Murder - Bong Joon-ho (2003)

'Fleshy' movie full of vomit, piss, blood and every other bodily fluid. Offputting combo of graphic serial murder investigation and humor, not so much comedic relief as a way to assimilate violence into a life. Set in the historical context of Korea in the 1980s, we see references of democracy protests and industrialization of the country. Many Hitchcockian parallels in both the film and the creative process of Bong.

Screened at the Harvard Film Archive with the director in attendance

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