Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 152
March 26, 2015
New in Theaters: ‘The Salt of the Earth’
One of Sebastio Salgado’s iconic photographs in ‘The Salt of the Earth’ (Sony Pictures Classics)
Given a brief Academy Awards run late last year, Wim Wenders’ magisterialdocumentary about photographer Sebastio Salgado is finally getting a proper theatrical release this week.
My review is atFilm Journal International:
“A photographer,” Wim Wenders intones at the start of his elegantly respectful documentary on Sebastião Salgado, “is literally somebody painting with light.” This definition soun...
March 25, 2015
New in Theaters: ‘White God’
‘White God': The dogs are coming (Magnolia Pictures)
Ever year the Cannes Film Festival awards the Un Certain Regard prize to a standout film. For 2014, that film was Hungarian directorKornel Mundruczo’sWhite God, which is not about race or religion, but rather about what happens when people push dogs a little too far. Yes, it’s a metaphor.
White God is opening this week in limited release. My review is atFilm Journal International:
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. That h...
March 22, 2015
Writer’s Desk: Finding Time
“Where do you find the time?” That may be one of the questions writers hear the most. It’s heard just about as often as “Where do you get your ideas?” and is possibly as hard to answer.
The most likely response is, “I have no idea.” Every writer tries to carve off little pieces of time here and there. But none of us live in a vacuum. Family, work, joy—There are lives to be led, after all. Because of the time crunch difficulty, advice can help.
Here’s some time management ideas that Fast Compa...
March 21, 2015
Readers’ Corner: Cervantes Found
It looks as though the grave of the Western world’s first true novelist might have been found at a 17th century convent in downtownMadrid. According toNewsHour:
Cervantes died the same week as William Shakespeare in 1616. He had requested to be buried at the convent where he was found. Luis Avial, the georadar expert on the team, said at a news conference on Tuesday that Cervantes’ remains will be reburied at the same convent, after a tomb has been built…
Cervantes didn’t just create the mod...
March 20, 2015
Weekend Reading: March 20, 2015
March 19, 2015
In Books: Richard Price’s ‘The Whites’
Even though The Whiteswas technically published under Richard Price’sgenre pen name Harry Brandt,the publisher didn’t even bother leaving his realname off the thing. It might be a crime novel instead of straight realist fiction and a couple hundred pages shorter than his usual. But the style is unmistakably that of the writer who brought such lived-in detail to novels likeThe Wanderers andLush Life and his scripts forThe Wire. This time, it’s just a little tighter, more razored. So in short:...
March 18, 2015
New in Theaters: ‘Jauja’
Viilbjørk Mallin Agger and Viggo Mortensen in ‘Jauja’ (Cinema Guild)
Jauja, a ghostly pseudo-Western set in the wilds of late-nineteenth century Argentina and starrting Viggo Mortensen, is opening this weekin limited release. My review is atFilm Journal International:
Given a précis of what Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja is ostensibly about, some might imagine they’re in for a South American updating of The Searchers. But even John Ford—who would have been happy to have a stolid leading man like Vi...
In Books: Ursula K. Le Guin is Right About ‘The Buried Giant’
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novelThe Buried Giant, the author ofRemains of the Day takes on a different kind of period setting: A fantastical yesteryear in which ogres roam the land, King Arthur is only recently departed, and a great dragon threatens the land.
It’s not the easiest fit for Ishiguro, who never quite seems comfortable in his own setting. He continually holds the reader’s hand, taking them aside for background notes on what they are witnessing instead of just letting the story flow....
March 17, 2015
On the Media: ‘The Jinx’ and Confessions
Curiously enough, there is actually a precedent for the news that broke over the weekend with a blockbuster HBO documentary playing an outsized role in an ongoing media sensation of a criminal case.
Decades before Andrew Jarecki’sThe Jinxplayed a (as yet not fully clear) role in the arrest of the perennial murder suspect and troubled millionaire Robert Durst, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s true-crime classicParadise Lost(about the West Memphis Three) bumped up against the realities of an...
March 15, 2015
Writer’s Desk: Orwell’s Reasons
George Orwell at the BBC (1940)
According to George Orwell, he played around with writing from a very early age. A patriotic poem here, some comic verse there. But it wasn’t until he read Milton as a teenager (always a dangerous combination) that the fire was well and truly lit.
In theessay, “Why I Write,” Orwell lays out the four “great motives” for pouring one’s heart and soul into the often tedious manufacture of prose:
Sheer egoism—”Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be rememb...
