Month: July, 2009
Sun 26 Jul 2009
Pépé Le Moko
Category: Janus Challenge
1 Comment
Director: Julien Duvivier
Country: France
Year: 1937
BACKGROUND
The French film director Julien Duvivier was born in 1896. His career in show business began when he joined the Théâtre de l’Odéon at the age of 20, as an actor. Within two years, he secured a job at the venerable Gaumont studio, working as a writer and a general assistant. [...]
Sun 19 Jul 2009
Pandora’s Box
Category: Janus Challenge
3 Comments
Director: G. W. Pabst
Country: Germany
Year: 1929
“Search fearlessly for every sin, for out of sin comes joy.”Frank Wedekind, author of Pandora’s Box
“He knows how to create a strange world, whose elements are borrowed from daily life. Beyond this precious gift, he knows how, better than anyone else, to direct actors. His characters emerge like his own [...]
Sun 12 Jul 2009
Miss Julie
Category: Janus Challenge
1 Comment
Director: Alf Sjöberg
Country: Sweden
Year: 1951
BACKGROUND
August Strindberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1849. While his father Carl was a successful shipping agent, his mother Nora was a domestic servant. This fact was referenced in the title of Strindberg’s autobiographical novel, Son of a Servant, and is a key to contextualizing his later work, including Miss [...]
Sun 5 Jul 2009
M. Hulot’s Holiday
Category: Janus Challenge
1 Comment
Director: Jacques Tati
Country: France
Year: 1953
“This is what interests Tati. Everything and nothing. Blades of grass, a kite, children, a little old man, anything, everything which is at once real, bizarre, and charming.”Jean-Luc Godard
“Tati is sparse, eccentric, quick. It is not until afterward—with the sweet nostalgic music lingering—that these misadventures take on a certain poignancy and [...]
