Law & “Les Misérables”

Michael W. Hannon, “Blessed Are Les Misérables: For Theirs Is the True Philosophy of Law”

“Les Misérables is undoubtedly a story of grace and repentance, but it is also a story of law—one that …

“The Man Who Knew Too Much”

The Criterion Collection has republished an analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much from David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s textbook Film Art. Click the image below to read the full post.…

Tolkien & Typology

Over at Mere Orthodoxy, Chris Krycho discsuses Tolkien and typology.

In his foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien boldly declares his dislike of allegory and notes that, whatever critics …

Cinematography Study: Skyfall

Roger Deakins is one of our greatest living cinematographers. Last year he teamed up with director Sam Mendes to shoot the new James Bond film, Skyfall. His work on the film has been nominated for …

Dissecting Trailers

Today, the New York Times published an interesting visual analysis of the trailers for five of the best picture Oscar nominees. They compare the narrative styles of each feature with the way the trailers sequentially place …

The Evolution of Movie Sound

Director Francis Ford Coppola talks about the evolving role of sound in his storytelling and sound facility in Napa.

As early as the Apocalypse Now movie in 1979 when Francis Ford Coppola and sound designer Walter …

Netflix and User Data

Andrew Leonard, How Netflix is Turning Viewers Into Puppets

For years Netflix has been analyzing what we watched last night to suggest movies or TV shows that we might like to watch tomorrow. Now it …

Interview with the Director of "Paperman"

DP/30 speaks with John Kars, the director of the Academy Award-nominated animated short, Paperman, which premiered in front of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph.

Shot in Burbank, February 2013 by DP/30.…

Love and “The New World”

Jeffrey Overstreet on Terrence Malick’s The New World

If you’ve followed this blog for a few years, you may have grown tired of my enthusiasm for Terrence Malick’s The New World. Deal with it. The New …

Tolkien & Hollywood Angst

Chris Kycho writes about Tolkien and Peter Jackson over at Mere Orthodoxy

There are two fundamental types of conflict in literature: external and internal. External conflicts pit the character against forces in the world around them: …