Synoptique. 6.

Once again, it really is best - simply because it looks best - to enter the new issue of Synoptique via the nifty widescreen navigation panorama (designed this time by James Culleton). Following the splash made last issue with the opening of the Style Gallery (and there are now 18 "examples," i.e., clips, all but one accompanied by thought-provoking comments), the editors present three views on the concept of style which'll "provide some of the groundwork for a Forum on Film Style to be published in in Synoptique 7 (February of 2005)": Brian Crane, Adam Rosadiuk and Colin Burnett.

In "There is No Band at Club Silencio," Mario Falsetto seeks to get at whatever it is that gets us when we watch David Lynch's Mulholland Drive: "Perhaps it's related to that elusive 'third meaning' that Roland Barthes talks about, that level of meaning that resides somewhere beyond plot and style. Cinema is an art of resonance. Cinematic moments linger in our unconscious, and they haunt us unaccountably."

Jodi Ramer examines "The Construction of the 'Hitchcock Blonde'," the image of which "is a familiar one, more specific but perhaps almost as well known as that of the femme fatale.... Marnie (1964), starring Tippi Hedren, stands out as a Hitchcock film in which the “cool” heroine breaks out of her supporting role as poised-and-pretty love-interest and enters the fray."

Chris Meir on Barry Lyndon: "Instead of 'chiming' clichés, Kubrick made a film that intentionally defied convention. This paper will be an examination of just how Kubrick carried out this project of genre revision by examining one specific device in the film: the third-person narrator."

"Since the 1980s, reception has played a crucial role in film studies." Lysandra Woods quickly outlines that role before recalling a raucous: "As one of the more high profile protests organized against a Hollywood release, the outcry over Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992) acts as a telling case study that foregrounds the fault lines and discursive competitions within the multifarious components of reception."

"Luckily, the Hong Kong industry has a history of resurfacing with new trends. One of the current emerging trends is perhaps documentary filmmaking, as evidenced by promising Canadian-Hong Kong filmmaker David Chow." Melanie Morrissette talks to him.

Owen Livermore is a Takashi Miike fan; so, he had an excellent time at the Fantasia Festival, where he not only saw three of Miike's most recent films but also his cameo in Last Life in the Universe: "Thin, grumpy and wearing sunglasses, this yakuza boss had little patience for post-9/11 airport security. Takashi Miike didn't say much in his cameo, but he didn't really have to: his own films would do all the talking."

Jonathan Doyle, "Synoptique's resident Splinter sprinter," presents brief write-ups of 17 films caught at the Montreal Festival of New Cinema; more, in French, from P-A Despatis D.

Wrapping up the issue are the Splinters themselves, well over two dozen quickie reviews, many of which may strike you as drive-by blasts of opinion, but sometimes, short really does result in succinct.

Posted by dwhudson at December 14, 2004 8:29 AM