Despite many noble dead on the field, the battle to prohibit video games from the hall of art has long since failed. The temple…
William Tell is at once large and small. It is an ambitious adaptation of 19th-century theatre, and it is a bloodthirsty action movie; it is…
Put ecclesiastical matters aside, just for the moment, and ask the question: what is a cathedral? What distinguishes a cathedral from a parish church?…
‘Behold,’ the Fairy cried, ‘Palmyra’s ruined palaces! Behold where grandeur frowned! Behold where pleasure smiled! What now remains?’ — “Queen Mab,” Book II, 109-13…
‘Tis the season of list compilation. All through the land are lists being compiled: the annual effort to determine the canon of Christmas Movie…
Last night, I had a dream. A marquee glowed orange-tungsten. Large black letters: JURASSIC PARK. I was there with my son Aphid. We were…
In 1892, Ruth Belville took up the family business. It was a trade inherited from her mother, first founded by her father. He had…
Entering Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, one is immediately faced with a decision. It’s a decision of considerable importance. Standing in the rotunda, one may either go…
Some say the banners of John Talbot flutter still, upon the fields of Castillon. But you did not stay to witness them. Honorable demise…
There are three kinds of transportation that dominate cinema: the horse, the car, and the train. Each of these has its romance and its…
In the canon of the silent cinema, only once has it been truly silent. The purifying beam of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of…
Ancient life was all silence. In the 19th Century, with the invention of machines, Noise was born. —Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noise The…
A quince tree in full fruit, September 30. This is the moment. Antonio López García prepares his canvas; he sets his easel; he colors…