Monday, January 31, 2011

The Omen

Psycho (1960)
dir. Alfred Hitchcock


These are the Damned (1963)
dir. Joseph Losey

The Prison Break

Raising Arizona (1987)
dir. Joel Coen


The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
dir. Frank Darabont

The Dinosaurs

Dinosaur! (1985)
dir. Robert Guenette



Jurassic Park (1993)
dir. Steven Spielberg

The Son of Man

Golconde (1953)
Renè Magritte


Being There (1979)
dir. Hal Ashby

The Enigma



"Suits hand-made by a tailor in Chicago in 1928. The tailor went out of business in 1933, then took his own life. The man carries no identification; no wallet, no driver's license, no credit cards. Fingerprint check proved negative, no identification possible."
Being There (1979)
written by Jerzy Kosinski & Robert C. Jones


"Nothing. No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom, no labels. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. No name, no other alias."

The Dark Knight (2008)
written by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, & David S. Goyer

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Prisoner

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
dir. Stanley Kubrick


The Dark Knight (2008)
dir. Christopher Nolan

The Victim and the Gang


These are the Damned (1963)
dir. Joseph Losey



A Clockwork Orange (1971) (and detail)
dir. Stanley Kubrick

The Court

The Docks of New York (1928)
dir. Josef von Sternberg


To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
dir. Robert Mulligan

The Repression

Splendor in the Grass (1961)
dir. Elia Kazan


Black Swan (2010)
dir. Darren Arronofsky

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Signature Entrance

The Shadow Chapter 1: "The Doomed City" (1940)
dir. James W. Horne


Batman (1989)
dir. Tim Burton

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Federal Dead

"Federal Dead on the Field of Battle of First Day, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania” (1863)
Mathew Brady


Granddad (1913)
dir. Thomas H. Ince

The Swimmer

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
dir. Leonard Nimoy


The Tracey Ullman Show "The Aquarium" (1988)
dir. Matt Groening

The Big Empty Room


Citizen Kane (1941)
dir. Orson Welles


Othello (1952)
dir. Orson Welles


Chimes at Midnight (1965)
dir. Orson Welles

The Shadow over the Grave

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
dir. John Ford


The Searchers (1956)
dir. John Ford

The Chase

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1980)
dir. Steven Spielberg


Jurassic Park (1993)
dir. Steven Spielberg

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Space Opera


Message from Space (1978) (and detail)
dir. Kinji Fukasaku

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
dir. Irvin Kershner


Message from Space

Star Wars: Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi (1983)
dir. Richard Marquand


Message from Space

Return of the Jedi



Kinji Fukasaku's Message from Space was one of untold dozens of cheap Star Wars knockoffs released in the late 1970s. Its plot, characters, and mise-en-scen all borrow heavily from Lucas' film. Interestingly enough, a few of the unique visuals this cash-in offered, in turn, found their way into the Star Wars sequels. It was at once an imitation and an inspiration.