7. Postcards from the Edge (1990), directed by Mike Nichols, shares with Day for Night the destabilizing strategy of opening with a scene from the film within the film. And The Stunt Man (1980), directed by Richard Rush, is a delightful elaboration on the theme of fabrication.
8. A. O. Scott, “A House Divided by Exasperation,” New York Times, December 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/movies/a-separation-directed-by-asghar-farhadi-review.html.
9. A video entitled “Making of ‘A Separation’ ” reveals that the camera was placed under the glass of a photocopy machine made especially for the shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5SCsMMFaCw. “Making of ‘A Separation,’ ” YouTube video, 19:28, posted by “Mansour Behabadi,” November 23, 2012.
10. Anthony Lane, “Tehran Tales,” New Yorker, January 9, 2012, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/09/tehran-tales.
11. Godfrey Cheshire, “Scenes from a Marriage,” Film Comment, January/February 2012, http://www.filmcomment.com/article/scenes-from-a-marriage/.
12. Masoud Golsorkhi, “A Separation Can’t Be Divorced from Iranian Politics,” Guardian, July 5, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/jul/05/a-separation-iranian-politics.
13. Anne Thompson, “Farhadi Talks Oscar Front-Runner A Separation; Divorce Drama Questions Iran’s Future,” Indiewire, December 30, 2011, http://www.indiewire.com/2011/12/farhadi-talks-oscar-front-runner-a-separation-divorce-drama-questions-irans-future-183625/.
14. Nadine Labaki’s previous feature Caramel (2008) is also an ensemble piece whose opening sequence establishes her thematic concerns and stylistic approach: to the strains of a tango (the score is again by Khaled Mouzanar), the camera tracks above a creamy dark surface being cooked on a stove. After the bubbling liquid becomes rivulets, women joyfully place the sticky caramel in their mouths. The comedy then unfolds in a Beirut beauty salon (where the caramel is also used as a depilatory). Like a Lebanese Almodóvar, Labaki portrays wacky women with affection.
7. Misdirection/Visual Narration
1. Part of my analysis of The Hourglass Sanatorium appeared in my book Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has (Chicago: Northwestern University Press), 2017.
2. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 5th edition, s.v. “Jean-Luc Godard.”
3. Roger Ebert, “Before the Rain,” Rogerebert.com, March 10, 1995, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/before-the-rain-1995.
4. Genesis 16:11–12 (King James Bible), http://biblehub.com/kjv/genesis/16.htm: “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, you art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
5. Bijan Tehrani, “A Conversation with Yaron Shani about making Ajami,” Cinema Without Borders, January 13, 2010, http://cinemawithoutborders.com/conversations/2055-a-conversation-with-yaron-shani-about-making-of-ajami.html.
6. Kenneth Turan, “Review: ‘Ajami,’ ” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/19/entertainment/la-et-ajami19-2010feb19.
7. Samuel Rimland, “Contemporary Conflict in Cinema: Comparative Approaches in Ajami and Before the Rain” (paper prepared for “Analysis of Film Language,” taught by the author, Columbia University, April 2016).
8. Annette Insdorf, “Intervening Images: An Interview with Roger Spottiswoode,” Cinéaste 13, no. 2 (1984): 39–40. One can compare this acknowledgment to that of Aleksander in Before the Rain, expressing guilt because his photographic intervention got someone killed.
9. Murch revealed that the actor Frederic Forrest placed the emphasis on us during one “wrong” take, which the editor added to the final mix. Walter Murch, “He’d Kill Us If He Had the Chance,” Web of Stories video, 03:33, n.d., https://www.webofstories.com/play/walter.murch/64.
10. Part of my analysis of Rising Sun appeared in my book Philip Kaufman (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012).
11. Annette Insdorf, Philip Kaufman (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2012), 2.
12. Leo Braudy, “Hitchcock, Truffaut, and the Irresponsible Audience,” Film Quarterly 21, no. 4 (Summer 1968): 21–27.
13. David Thomson, “My Favourite Film: The Truman Show,” Guardian, December 16, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/dec/16/my-favourite-film-truman-show.
8. Voice-Over Narration/Flashback
1. Victor Brombert, “Opening Signals in Narrative,” New Literary History 11 (1979–80): 489–502.
2. Andrew Bell, “American Beauty: White Picket Prisons” (paper written for “Analysis of Film Language,” taught by the author, Columbia University, May 8, 2016).
3. Alan Ball, “American Beauty” (unpublished draft, n.d.), http://mypage.netlive.ch/demandit/files/M_BFNO38KLSZ567NYSJ29/dms/modul_03/American_Beauty_early_draft.pdf.
4. “Interview to Tom Tykwer and Anthony Minghella,” YouTube video, 1:25:09, Script Factory Masterclasses, Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin International Film Festival, 2003, posted by “FanFresFilms,” October 6, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GwmJyl_ZvE.
5. The New Encyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 16 (London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1807), s.v. “overture.”
Index
Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
Abraham, 132
Academy Awards, 21, 44, 53, 56, 57, 62, 63, 69, 71, 76, 81, 111, 116, 125, 137, 151, 153
Ackroyd, Barry, 92
Act of Killing (2012), 4
Adamovich, Ales, 84
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), 40–43, 41
Ajami (2009), 97, 124, 129–133
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), 75
Allen, Woody, 76, 159
All the President’s Men (1976), 31–33, 32, 58, 63, 141
All the President’s Men (Woodward and Bernstein), 32
Almodóvar, Pedro: Talk to Her (2002), 7–8; What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), 7; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), 7
Altman, Robert, 13, 75; McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), 10; Nashville (1975), 39, 96; The Player (1992), 39–40
Amarcord (1974), 10, 76
American Beauty (1999), 153–156, 155, 157–159
American History X (1998), 156
American Sniper (2014), 93–94
Amores perros (2000), 96
Anatomy of a Murder (1959), 6
Anderson, Paul Thomas, Magnolia (1999), 13, 96
Angry Harvest (1985), 49, 50, 51
Annie Hall (1977), 159
Antonioni, Michelangelo, Blow-Up (1966), 133, 136, 137, 138
Apocalypse Now (1979), 5, 17, 43, 73, 80–84, 81, 86, 137
Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), 82
Arcalli, Franco, 20
Aristophanes, 120
Arizona Dream (1993), 10–11
Arkin, Alan, 98, 101
Arndt, Michael, 101
Ascent (1976), 89
Ashby, Hal, 75
Ashes and Diamonds (1958), 12
Aumont, Jean-Pierre, 107
auteurs, 15
Aznavour, Charles, 24
Babel (2006), 96
Badlands (1974), 159–162, 161
Bakri, Saleh, 120
Ball, Alan, 153, 156
Ballard, Carroll, 82
Bal, Le (1983), 101–107, 102, 121
Balsmeyer & Everett, 11
Bancroft, Anne, 76
Barcelona (1994), 104
Barry Lyndon (1975), 76
Bass, Saul, 1, 6–7, 78, 144
Battle of Algiers (1966), 96
Bausch, Pina, 8
Bayat,
Sareh, 112
Baye, Nathalie, 108
Bazin, André, 35, 36
Baz Moussawbaa, Claude, 118
Beatles, 106
Beatty, Warren, 10, 17, 159, 160
Beaufort (2007), 91
Beckett, Samuel, 80
Before the Rain (1994), 124–129, 127, 132, 173n8
Before the Revolution (1964), 20
Bekhti, Leila, 119
Bell, Andrew, 154–155
Beltrán, Lola, 7
“Be My Baby” (song), 5–6
Bening, Annette, 154
Bennent, David, 23
Bentley, Wes, 154
Bergman, Ingmar, 26
Bergstein, Eleanor, 5–6
Berlin International Film Festival, 162; standards for films, 11–12
Bernstein, Carl, 32
Bertolucci, Bernardo, 76, 170n2; The Conformist (1970), 15–20, 31, 57; The Last Emperor (1987), 17; Before the Revolution (1964), 20
Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946), 96, 122
Bidegain, Thomas, 116
Big Chill, The (1983), 96
Bigelow, Kathryn, 92
Big Red One, The (1980), 92
Big Sleep, The (1946), 74
Binoche, Juliette, 27
Birch, Thora, 154
Birds, The (1963), 145
Birth of a Nation (1915), 171n9
Bisset, Jacqueline, 107
Biyouna, 120
Blanchett, Cate, 70
Blind Chance (1987), 148
Blow-Up (1966), 133, 136, 137, 138
Bonnie and Clyde (1967), 160
Boot, Das (1981), 92
Border Street (1948), 52
Brackett, Charles, 152
Brando, Marlon, 35–36, 74, 80
Braudy, Leo, 73–74, 145
Brawne, Fanny, 47–49
Bregović, Goran, 10
Breslin, Abigail, 101
Bright Star (2009), 44, 47–49, 48
Brombert, Victor, 2, 33, 150
Brook, Peter, Mahabarata (1989), 26
Brussels World’s Fair Film Festival (1958), 39
Buñuel, Luis, 26, 76
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), 129
Cabaret (1972), 33, 33–34
Cafe Müller (dance), 8
California Split (1974), 75
Cámara, Javier, 8
Camouflage (1976), 9–10
Campion, Jane, 53–54; Bright Star (2009), 44, 47–49; The Piano (1993), 44–47, 168n7
Camus, Albert, 121
Cannes Film Festival, 57, 76, 116, 119
Caramel (2008), 172–173n14
Carell, Steve, 101
Carrey, Jim, 146, 148
Carrière, Jean-Claude, 21, 26–27, 31
Cartlidge, Katrin, 125
Carvajal, Gaspar de, 41–43
Cassavetes, John, A Woman Under the Influence (1974), 12, 75
Cassidy, Joanna, 136
Catch Me If You Can (2002), 7
Celluloid Skyline (Sanders), 79–80
Chandler, Raymond, 74
Chapman, Michael, 79
Cheshire, Godfrey, 114
Chinatown (1974), 75, 141
Choose Me (1984), 96
Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising According to Marek Edelman (1993), 50
Citizen Kane (1941), 78
Ciudad, La (The City) (1999), 98–99, 99
Clift, Montgomery, 74
Clockwork Orange, A (1971), 157
Close, Glenn, 97
Cohen, Leonard, 10
Colin, Grégoire, 125
collective protagonists, 96–121; Ajami (2009), 97, 124, 129–133; Le Bal (1983), 101–107, 121; La Ciudad (The City) (1999), 98–99; Day for Night (1973), 107–111; Little Miss Sunshine (2006), 101; A Separation (2011), 111–116; The Source (2011), 119–121; Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000), 97; 13 Conversations About One Thing (2002), 97–98; 3 Backyards (2010), 99–101; Where Do We Go Now? (2011), 116–121
Collette, Toni, 101
Come and See (1985), 73, 84–89, 85
Conformist, The (1970), 15–20, 19, 31, 57
Connery, Sean, 141
Conrad, Joseph, 74, 80, 82–83
Contempt (1963), 15
Conversation, The (1974), 75, 81, 122, 133, 137–141, 138, 140, 143
Cooper, Bradley, 93–94
Cooper, Chris, 154
Cooper, Kyle, 7
Coppola, Francis Ford: Apocalypse Now (1979), 5, 17, 43, 73, 80–84, 86, 137; The Conversation (1974), 75, 81, 122, 133, 137–141, 143; The Godfather (1972), 35–36, 74; Godfather trilogy, 75, 81, 137
Copti, Scandar, Ajami (2009), 97, 124, 129–133
Cornish, Abbie, 47, 48
Cortese, Valentina, 107
Cosma, Vladimir, 106
Costa-Gavras, Z (1969), 55, 56–58
Crash (2004), 96
Crichton, Michael, 141, 143
Crisostomo, Christina, 46
cubism, 60
“Cucurrucucu Paloma” (song), 8
Cumberbatch, Benedict, 151
Damon, Matt, 92
Dangerous Liaisons (1988), 3
Dano, Paul, 101
Dark Glow of the Mountains, The (1984), 43
Davidtz, Embeth, 100
Davis, Bette, 6, 36
Day for Night (1973), 76, 107–111, 109, 121, 172n7
Day-Lewis, Daniel, 26–27, 29
Days of Heaven (1978), 159, 162
Dayton, Jonathan, Little Miss Sunshine (2006), 101
Dean, James, 74, 160
Death and the Dervish (Selimović), 126
Decalogue, The (1989), 12, 96–97, 115–116, 148
Delerue, Georges, 16, 108–109
De Niro, Robert, 78, 79
Descartes, René, 121
De Sica, Vittorio, 104; Two Women (1960), 15
Diaz, Cameron, 97
Dickens, Charles, 13
Dickinson, Emily, 46
Dirty Dancing (1987), 5–6
Dispatches (Herr), 83–84
Doctorow, E. L., 13
Dog Day Afternoon (1975), 76
Donat, Yoav, 89–90
“Don’t Fence Me In” (song), 142
Doors, The, 5, 80, 83
Do the Right Thing (1989), 11, 96
Double Indemnity (1944), 152
Double Life of Veronique, The (1991), 66
Dr. Strangelove (1964), 61
Dryburgh, Stuart, 45
Dubček, Alexander, 27
Duras, Marguerite, 59–60
Duvall, Robert, 83, 139–140
Dylewska, Jolanta, 50
Ebert, Roger, 42, 43, 89, 126
Effi Briest (1974), 76
Eliade, Mircea, 150
Elizabeth II, Queen of England, 3
Emmerich, Noah, 147
Endgame (Beckett), 80
English Patient, The (1996), 12, 81, 166n6
Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The (1974), 41
Entourage (HBO television series), 40
Erbe, Kathryn, 100, 100
“Et maintenant?” (“What Now, My Love?”; song), 103
Europa, Europa (1990), 49
Executive Suite (1954), 74–75
Falardeau, Philippe, The Good Lie (2013), 121
Falco, Edie, 100
Farhadi, Asghar: The Past (2013), 116; A Separation (2011), 111–116, 121
Farhadi, Sarina, 111–112
Farhat, Julian, 118
Faris, Valerie, Little Miss Sunshine (2006), 101
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 76
Fellini, Federico, 10, 76, 109
Fight Club (1999), 150–151, 156–158, 157
Fight Club (Palahniuk), 156
“Fight the Power” (Public Enemy), 11
film adaptations, 12–13, 14–34; All the President’s Men (1976), 31–33, 58, 63, 141; Apocalypse Now (1979), 74, 80, 82–83; Le Bal (1983), 101–102; Cabaret (1972), 33–34; cinematic translation in, 15; The Conformist (1970), 15–16;
In Darkness (2011), 49–50; The English Patient (1996), 12, 166n6; Fight Club (1999), 156; The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973), 123–124; The Lady in the Lake (1947), 74; Rising Sun (1993), 141, 143; Schindler’s List (1994), 63; The Shipping News (2001), 69; The Tin Drum (1979), 21–22, 27; Two Women (1960), 15; The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1987), 14–15, 26–31, 81, 141; Z (1969), 56
Film Comment, 114
Filmmaking by the Book (Marcus), 15
film noir, 9, 37, 80, 151–153
Fincher, David, 7; Fight Club (1999), 150–151, 156–158
Fitzcarraldo (1982), 42
flashbacks, 15; Badlands (1974), 159–162; The Conformist (1970), 15–20; Dr. Strangelove (1964), 61; Fight Club (1999), 150–151, 156–158; Hiroshima, mon amour (1959), 58–61; The Imitation Game (2014), 151; The Pawnbroker (1964), 61; Pulp Fiction (1994), 125, 150–151; Sunset Boulevard (1950), 151–153; Z (1969), 57
Flaubert, Gustave, 13
Ford, Aleksander, 52
Ford, Harrison, 139–140
Ford, John, 129
Ford, Patrick, 86–88
Forman, Miloš: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), 75; Valmont (1989), 26
Fosse, Bob, 141; Cabaret (1972), 33–34
Frankenheimer, John, Seconds (1966), 6–7
Frears, Stephen, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), 3
French Connection, The (1971), 56
French New Wave, 9, 20–21, 39, 60, 76
Fricke, Florian, 42–43
Frohman, Clay, 133
Fugate, Caril Ann, 160
Fuller, Samuel, 92; The Naked Kiss (1964), 4
Fürmann, Benno, 50
Fusco, Giovanni, 60
Gabin, Jean, 103
García, Rodrigo, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000), 97
Gardel, Carlos, 66
Garlicki, Piotr, 9
Gattaca (1997), 93
Gere, Richard, 159
Ghost at Noon (Moravia), 15
Giannini, Giancarlo, 62
Gish, Dorothy, 108
Gish, Lillian, 108
Glenn, Scott, 70
“Gloomy Sunday” (song), 65–66
Godard, Jean-Luc, 20, 39, 57, 61, 124, 160; Contempt (1963), 15
Godfather (trilogy), 75, 81, 137
Godfather, The (1972), 35–36, 74
Golden Globes, 91
Goldman, William, 32
Golsorkhi, Masoud, 115
González Iñárritu, Alejandro, 96
Goodbye Berlin (Isherwood), 33
Good Kill (2015), 73, 92–95, 94
Good Lie, The (2013), 121
Good, The Bad and the Ugly, The (1966), 10
Graduate, The (1967), 40, 73, 76–77, 77, 158–159
Grand Illusion (1937), 56