An initial response to the narratively complex and structurally beautiful Glass, which concludes the diverse trilogy of the meditative mood piece Unbreakable and the character-oriented suspense film Split.
This third and final piece will round up favourite moments, film-formal devices, and a large number of motifs, staging ideas, echoes and other structural properties that enrich this well-thought-out film.
Continuing our guide to this film, a look at the masterfully staged piazza scene where music and mise-en-scène interact, against a backdrop of motifs and echoes.
Through an abundance of visual examples, a guide to the film’s final scenes, revealing how not only its characters but the film itself is striving to achieve closure.
The cat-and-mouse sessions between psychiatrist and patient form a thrilling acting laboratory, where M. Night Shyamalan’s fundamentally static set-ups are done with rigour and discreet invention. Bonus: film references.
The apparent simplicity of Split conceals a surprising amount of ideas, refinement and subtlety. This is a moment-by-moment analysis of the brilliant abduction scene, plus a hard look at isolation, corridors, animals and flowers.
We are unable to let go of Interstellar…! This third article explores the film as an experience and its music, editing and consistency. And perhaps there are more plans in the film than Plan A and B?
This second of three analytical articles on Interstellar explores themes: identity, religion, lies and truth, inflexible worldviews, and the difference between the imagined and the experienced.
This is the first of three analytical articles on Christopher Nolan’s transcendent Interstellar. It has both a newfound emotional maturity and structural complexity, holding an abundance of deeply embedded motifs, patterns and parallels.
During the monumental, relentlessly hypnotic climax, M. Night Shyamalan succeeds in finding a cinematic equivalent of the effortless unfolding of superhuman powers, in a formal framework also suggesting the hero’s ritualised path to that state.
When M. Night Shyamalan’s flawed film starts working, its elements play in unison as in a symphonic work, where the sketchily drawn characters become pieces in a formal game of harmony.
We look at three outstanding scenes in this better-than-you-think M. Night Shyamalan film, along with its pervasive motif of figures in a landscape, visual rhymes and many occasions of elegant staging.