Often, this column tends to focus on moments, scenes, or sequences that serve as a capsule or summation of the larger themes presented in a particular film. However, there is something to be said of moments that stand out simply because they are beautiful, touching, or powerful all on their own. These are the moments that often take our breath […]
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Cinema is an interesting art form, in that it is made up of a number of other art forms, including theater, painting, music, and writing (among others). Not all films can be considered art, nor should they all strive to be, but when they do rise to that level, they become something that can help us better understand ourselves, and […]
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It’s March, which means it’s time for St. Patrick’s Day, the annual celebration of all things Irish. It also means that spring is in the air, and as Alfred Lord Tennyson (or was it Lord Alfred Hayes…I can never remember) taught us, that’s the time when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. So as a way […]
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In honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided to use this month’s column to focus on one of the most touching and heartfelt love stories ever put to film. No, I’m not talking about Twilight (sorry, kids). I figure I’ll hold off on that one until I feel like focusing on the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Of course, I can only […]
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From the start, I have used this column to focus on moments, scenes, or sequences that tend to sum up the themes and subtext of any given film. They are moments that boil the entire film down to its very essence, encapsulating every idea the director wants to convey in a single short burst. But I realized that by doing […]
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For most people, Christmas is a time for togetherness, a time to connect with friends and family, and bask in the warm glow of love, peace and friendship. For others, however, Christmas is just another painful reminder of how alone they truly are, and the holiday becomes a sort of existential nightmare for these poor folks who have nothing better […]
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A word of warning before we begin: things are about to get schmaltzy here at Great Moments of Cinema, so if you’re one of those heartless cynical types who hates all that sappy emotional stuff, you might want to stop reading right now. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dive right into this month’s column, in which I […]
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Part of the brilliance of director Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is the way in which it demystifies space travel. His characters aren’t heroic astronauts or brilliant scientists or mystic space knights. Instead, they are blue-collar working stiffs who just happen to make their living on a mining ship that traverses the stars. It is a clever (if not wholly original) […]
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Carol Burnett once said “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” What she meant is that anything can be considered funny given enough time and distance. George Carlin agreed with her to a point. He believed that everything could be considered funny, and it didn’t matter how much time had passed. His contention was that “It all depends on how you construct […]
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Director Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian fable Children of Men (2006) is a veritable master class in the art of modern filmmaking, and nearly any moment in the film would be worthy of inclusion in this column. However, the sequence that towers above them all, and serves as the focus of this installment, comes late in the film, and depicts a rare […]
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