This Savage Art » the house next door http://www.thissavageart.com a steady diet of obsessive cinema and screenwriting in the dark Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:11:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Copyright © This Savage Art 2010 wsperuzzi@gmail.com (This Savage Art) wsperuzzi@gmail.com (This Savage Art) http://www.thissavageart.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg This Savage Art http://www.thissavageart.com 144 144 a steady diet of obsessive cinema and screenwriting in the dark This Savage Art This Savage Art wsperuzzi@gmail.com no no Understanding Screenwriting http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/13/understanding-screenwriting/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=understanding-screenwriting http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/13/understanding-screenwriting/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:42:54 +0000 William Speruzzi http://www.thissavageart.com/?p=1093 A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

]]> There’s a new feature at The House Next Door. Check it out.

]]> http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/13/understanding-screenwriting/feed/ 0 Mad Men Mondays http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/03/mad-men-mondays/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mad-men-mondays http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/03/mad-men-mondays/#comments Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:34:03 +0000 William Speruzzi http://www.thissavageart.com/?p=1072 A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

]]> Since The Sopranos has left us we luckily have another great show to take its place. The House Next Door covers the Monday morning analysis once again, thank you Andrew Johnston. Here’s episodes one and two.

]]> http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/08/03/mad-men-mondays/feed/ 0 Random Link Dump #3 http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/06/05/random-link-dump-3/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=random-link-dump-3 http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/06/05/random-link-dump-3/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:20:16 +0000 William Speruzzi http://www.thissavageart.com/?p=994 A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

]]> While some sites are dicking around with reviews of Kung Fu Panda [I kid, I kid] there’s an avalanche of good stuff on the interweb today:

  • A massive film resource database is here for all to enjoy. The Moving Image Source. Well…enjoy! [via The Reeler.]
  • Writer/director/one of the reasons I pray to the film gods Paul Schrader and cinematographer extraordinaire Ed Lachman speak at BAM. [Video clips.]
  • More Schrader. Notes from Kevin B. Lee on the underappreciated Light Sleeper.
  • Steven Boone crashes Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn block party.
  • How dare you disrespect Abel Ferrara!!!
]]> http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/06/05/random-link-dump-3/feed/ 1 Greatest. TV Drama. Ever http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/03/06/greatest-tv-drama-ever/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=greatest-tv-drama-ever http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/03/06/greatest-tv-drama-ever/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:21:25 +0000 William Speruzzi http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/03/06/greatest-tv-drama-ever/ A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

]]> The House Next Door contributors get into it over which of the three quality shows, Deadwood, The Wire and The Sopranos, is the best [podcast and transcript available.] Now all I have to do is catch up.

]]> http://www.thissavageart.com/2008/03/06/greatest-tv-drama-ever/feed/ 1 World Of Dreams http://www.thissavageart.com/2007/10/12/world-of-dreams/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=world-of-dreams http://www.thissavageart.com/2007/10/12/world-of-dreams/#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:36:29 +0000 William Speruzzi http://www.thissavageart.com/2007/10/12/world-of-dreams/ A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

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[Entry in the Close-Up Blog-a-thon, hosted by The House Next Door, running Oct. 12 through Oct. 21. Close-up image from Once Upon a Time In America.]

DeNiro’s poppy induced smile is such a far removed sentiment from the whole of Sergio Leone’s Lower East Side spaghetti crime epic. A man at peace with himself, maybe the only time, only through flashback and only through the use of narcotics, David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson slips away to dream. Of what? We can only image. Wherever he is it is far from the life of a petty criminal filled, upon reflection, with much regret and loss.

The close-up is preceded by Noodles as an older man unknowingly attending the party of a dear friend from days long gone. Aged, listless and drained of any real joy Noodles looks on at the gate where his friend Maximilian ‘Max’ Bercovicz stands in front of his massive Gatsby-esque estate. A garbage truck passes in front of Max as Noodles gazes on. The truck grinds. Max disappears – another ghost from Noodles’ past gone as the truck’s lights fade into the darkness and magically [really, a great visual match dissolve] transform into a Prohibition era car’s headlights full of young men and women celebrating the New Year. Noodles wistfully watches his youth drive off.

Ennio Morricone’s heart-swelling tinny score leads us to the next scene that takes place in the past where we find Noodles, a young man looking to fix what is ailing him. The close-up rides us out – it being the last image we see in this melancholic journey through New York’s immigrant gangster origins to this final destination, a Chinatown opium den.

Noodles tokes up, leans back on a prepared bed and lets his mind wander to blissfully find his gauzy happiness. He does. He is free.

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