“ It Seems To Me That The Purpose Of Art Is To Prepare The Human Soul For The Perception Of Good. The

Fallen Angels  aka  Do lok tin si  (1995)  | dir.  Kar-Wai Wong | Hong Kong

Michelle Reis

Hansel and Gretel (2007) | dir. Pil-sung Yim | South Korea

Shim Eun-Kyung & Jin Ji-Hee

Of Freaks and Men (1998) | dir. Alexei Balabanov

Cinematography by  Sergey Astakhov

"Of Freaks and Men" is both a dark gem and a perplexing marketing conundrum. Pic will get fest kudos, but it's too much ribald fun for "serious"art film lovers and too offbeat in its birth-of-Russian-porno subject matter and stylized cinematography to catch any significant arthouse B.O. Its outside chance of success rests upon savvy exploitation of its undeniable qualities and quirky period parlor hijinx.

References for this picture, shot almost entirely in a tinted-sepia re-creation of period daguerreotypes, are tough to find, but one could look to David Lynch’s penchant for dwarves and Canadian cult auteur Guy Maddin’s oddball musings. Pic also bears strong stylistic resemblance to Steven Soderbergh’s ill-fated B&W “Kafka.” But “Freaks” contrasts strongly with all of the above in its fidelity to its sympathetic characters and the central premise that sex is the sinister undoing of both the innocent and the evil...

Thought-provoking, funny, disturbing and utterly involving, “Freaks” marks a terrific follow-up to Balabanov’s award-winning ’97 Russian box office hit, “Brother.” Cinematographer Sergei Astakhov’s carefully modulated and composed sepia-tone images are both disconcerting and hypnotically mood-enhancing. While the distancing effect may be counterproductive to the drama, it does lend an aura of the faded, forlorn days when the combination of sex and photography was new.

The Virgin Suicides (1999) | dir. Sofia Coppola | USA

Cinematography by Edward Lachman

As I was moving ahead occasionally I saw brief glimpses of beauty (2000), dir. Jonas Mekas

I’m attracted to the extreme light and the extreme dark. I’m interested in the human condition and what makes people tick. I’m interested in the things people try to hide.

Johnny Depp  (via wordsnquotes)

Amélie | dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet | 2001

DoP: Bruno Delbonnel

There is no answer. It’s okay. But even if it wasn’t okay, what am I supposed to do?

Raymond Carver, Cathedral (via quotespile)

And later when we got into the car, he took a turn down a street that I was pretty sure was a dead end. ‘Where are we going?’ I asked. ‘I don’t know,’ he said ‘just driving.’ ‘But this road doesn’t go anywhere,’ I told him. ‘That doesn’t matter.’ ‘What does?’ I asked, after a little while. ‘Just that we’re on it, dude.’

Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero (via quotespile)

Clue (1985) dir. Jonathan Lynn