Star Wars (the original: is there any other?)

This post continues my Story Structure series.

In the earlier post Two Frescoes, by Giotto and by Taddeo Gaddi, I questioned how many famous movies really are most usefully analyzed as having “3-act structure” — despite the claims of the screenwriting books and the examples they give. Are their analyses fair? And are they typical of the best movies?

Here’s an example of a good movie that does have 3-act structure: the original Star Wars. But it’s also an example of a movie in which it’s useful to ask questions the screenwriting books don’t cover.

Emily Dickinson — I could not stop for death

A post in the ongoing series Poetry in the Arts.

Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
and Immortality.

We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility —

Heroes — Luchino Visconti

Count Don Luchino Visconti di Modrone

Here’s a sampling of my favorite Luchino Visconti films.

Heroes — Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky on the set of Stalker

Heroes — Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio de Sica, shown above with one of the stars of Umberto D.

Heroes — Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir

Heroes — Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

Heroes — Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Heroes — Satyajit Ray

This post, the first in a series of seven, is unabashed hero worship. A few years ago, making up an earlier version of this page, I decided that among all the filmmakers I’ve liked, there were seven who really especially blow me away.

I’ve had time to think since, and haven’t changed my mind. There are plenty of “honorable mentions” I love, but there are seven who are extra special and this is one of them.

Satyajit Ray

Poetry is any film by Satyajit Ray, or any scene in any of his films, or anything that he ever thought about, or that happened when he was nearby, or that happened to anybody during a year he was alive.

Sherlock Holmes — on imagination

On my About page, I present quotations and images that—like the ones at the top of the sidebar to the left—suggest the importance of imagination, inspiration, imagery, art.

There is some dialogue in the film of The Hound of the Baskervilles that, for me, also expresses this perfectly.

Michelangelo’s “Slave Awakening”

Robert Snyder made two inspiring documentaries about Michelangelo—and films about others including Buckminster Fuller, Claudio Arrau and Willem de Kooning.

I’ve been haunted by his 1989 documentary Michelangelo: Self Portrait.

Poetry in Film, in Art

This post introduces the ongoing series Poetry in the Arts.

“Do you know my poetry”
– Johnny Depp as William Blake, in Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man