Contemporary Obscurity

Contemporary Obscurity: The Stoning of Soraya M.

MikeDawson — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:14:22 -0700

Every film, good or bad, solicits and elicits an emotional response from its audience. From excitement to boredom, from laughter to tears and everything else in-between; but very few films can create as overwhelming a sense of anger in the viewer as The Stoning of Soraya M.

Contemporary Obscurity: The Stoning of Soraya M. - Podcast

Left_Field_Cinema — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 23:59:08 -0700

Anger and cinema are here explored via Cyrus Nowrasteh's film The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008) which walks a fine line between moral crusading and islamophobia.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Contemporary Obscurity: Afterschool

MikeDawson — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:37:20 -0700

We are living in the era of the so-called “prosumer”; notions of “producer” and “consumer” have been merged. The traditional business model sees a member of the public pay a fee, be it a TV Licence, satellite subscription, cinema ticket or the cost of a DVD and the creative artists in return provides them with a piece or pieces of entertainment, art or other diversion.

Contemporary Obscurity: Afterschool - Podcast

Left_Field_Cinema — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:38:14 -0700

27 year old director Antonio Campos' film Afterschool (2008) examines the relationships between the consumer and the producer, using modern technology as weapons of terror, from videography to the internet.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Contemporary Obscurity: The Consequences of Love

MikeDawson — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:54:43 -0700

There is an old Chinese proverb: “Three may keep a secret, so long as two are dead”, Paolo Sorrentino’s sophomore feature film, The Consequences of Love, presents its own spin on this truism: “When two people know a secret, it’s no longer a secret.” Total isolation of the truth is the only way to keep the truth concealed and this sense of isolation extends into various facets of Sorrentino’s film - characters, visuals and narrative.

Contemporary Obscurity: The Consequences of Love - Podcast

Left_Field_Cinema — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:02:19 -0700

Paolo Sorrentino's The Consequences of Love is a flawed yet highly distinctive modern gangster film, boasting stunning photography, unusual pacing and a nuanced central performance from Toni Servillo.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Contemporary Obscurity: Father of My Children

MikeDawson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:35:17 -0700

Structure is often considered to be of vital importance to the process of creating a narrative. Structure has been meticulously examined and explored in relation to drama for thousands of years. Famously the process began with Aristotle’s Poetics, the oldest surviving analysis of dramatic principles and effectively the birth place of critical theory in relation to literature and theatre, critical theory which would eventually be applied to cinema.

Contemporary Obscurity: Father of My Children - Podcast

Left_Field_Cinema — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:24:24 -0700

Actor turned writer director Mia Hansen-Løve’s second feature film Father of My Children (Le père de mes enfants) is an excellent example of a two-act film.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

Contemporary Obscurity: Gravesend

MikeDawson — Wed, 19 May 2010 01:08:03 -0700

Four young men living in the titular Gravesend, New York, are caught up in multiple murders and petty crime on a Saturday night and slowly begin turning against each other. The films tagline summarises the film as: “4 Kids, 3 Bodies, 2 fights, 1 Night, No Shit”, although arguably all of the numerical values are inaccurate except the “1 Night” this punchy summary does capture the flavour of Salvatore Stabile’s directorial debut quite well.

Contemporary Obscurity: Gravesend - Podcast

Left_Field_Cinema — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:31:02 -0700

Salvatore Stabile's directed Gravesend (1997) a low budget American Indie while he was still a teenager. This impressive and violent drama shows immense promise in the same ways as the early works of Martin Scorsese.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.