Friday 9 August 2013

Voyna i Mir
(1967)


RATING:100%
FORMAT:DVD

[War & Peace]

True to both the spirit and length of the original, every aspect of this movie comes together to produce a unified and sublime whole: Every frame glues itself to the eyes.

Replete with visual analogues for Tolstoy’s writing, the music & sound design are also used to reveal character. The acting is rather mannered to emphasize the contrast between the elegance of those who do not face combat and those who do. The battles are shot subjectively throughout, yet remain epic to show that the glory hounds, in particular, (with little to live for) desperately seek something to die for.

Soviet cinema produced (like today’s Hollywood) little of esthetic value, but here is a very notable exception. The sad thing about an epic this grand is that no one today could possibly afford to do anything like this ever again, on such a fantastic scale.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 17:21
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)