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What Makes us Human? – the Enigma of “Dark City”
The film is set in a city where there is no sun, it is shrouded in eternal darkness. John Murdoch awakes in a bathtub, disoriented, not knowing his own name, or anything about himself. In other words, he is in the same position as the viewer, darkness (lack of cognition) pervades not only the external,…
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5 Films To Be Watched As A Nietzschean Test of Will
When Nietzsche’s philosophy is taken into account, the phrase “test of will” cannot be found in the original texts of the philosopher, but it appears in the interpretations. To be more specific, in the interpretation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men, put on the silver screen by the legendary Coen Brothers. Chigurh,…
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In Bruno Ganz’s Words “In Memoriam: An Angel Embodying A Demon”
[On Hitler: Downfall (2004)] What people need is for Hitler to actually represent evil itself. But what is evil itself? That means nothing to me. I have to perform a living human being (…) We know how to judge Hitler. We don’t need another film that condemns him. We already know where we stand on…
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In Friedrich Nietzsche’s Words: Why Do We Like Comedies?
Perhaps I know best why man alone laughs: he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter. The unhappiest and most melancholy man is, as fitting, the most cheerful. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power ≈ 91 On German Pessimism This Nietzsche’s thought can be seen as a bridge between his youthful stage…
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I Am Who I Am! – Identity Fragmentation in “Perfect Blue”
Satoshi Kon is arguably, alongside Hayao Miyazaki, the most important Japanese director of animated films. Perfect Blue is his first film and this directorial debut can be compared to David Lynch’s Eraserhead due to sheer boldness and far-reaching artistic vision. The film begins with a show staged for children featuring a Japanese version of Power…
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In Akira Kurosawa’s Words: Film Director As A Military Commander
A film director has to convince a great number of people to follow him and work with him. I often say, although I am certainly not a militarist, that if you compare the production unit to an army, the script is the battle flag and the director is the commander in the front line. From…
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In Sigmund Freud’s Words: Rewatching Movies = A Child at Play?
“In the play of children we seem to arrive at the conclusion that the child repeats even the unpleasant experiences because through his own activity he gains a far more thorough mastery of the strong impression than was possible by mere passive experience. Every fresh repetition seems to strenghten this mastery for which the child…
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Journey into the Unconscious: Alex Garland’s “Annihilation”
For me, [Annihilation] was a film about the nature of self-destruction… it was about an observation I made, which is that everybody appears to be self-destructive. Some people are very obviously self-destructive because they’re addicted to heroin or alcohol… Other people are very comfortable in their own skin, and they’ve got a fantastic job and…
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In Andrei Tarkovsky’s Words: Struggle Against Censorship and Tyranny of the Spirit
An artist never works under ideal conditions. If they existed, his work wouldn’t exist, for the artist does not live in a vacuum. Some sort of pressure must exist. The artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would…
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In Gustave Le Bon’s Words: Cinema and Crowd Psychology
„Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images. It is only images that terrify or attract them and become motives of action. For this reason theatrical representations[1], in which the image is shown in its most clearly visible shape, always have an enormous influence on crowds. Bread and…
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Vigour of Film Lines 