Word: motif
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Answer. At their best, the new Czech films combine a zest for cinematic experimentation with a thematic audacity and wry humor that is surprising in a Communist culture. A recurrent motif of the Prague cinemakers is the plight of the dogged individualist who bombards society with question marks, and usually receives "Oh" for an answer. Black Peter, Forman's first feature film, is a droll defense of an aimless Czech teenager, who drifts from senseless jobs to hopeless dance-hall encounters to empty lectures at home. In the devastating symbolism of Joseph Kilián, by 30-year...
Lester acknowledges the element of fantasy--with a sardonically Brechtian smile, perhaps?--by inserting scenes in which imaginings take shape as fact. Visually, the film's motif is whiteness--the sky throughout is a dazzling white; much of the action takes place in the white living room; Colin and Tolen dream of lines of white-sweatered girls, whom Lester renders in overexposed, high-key photography--and the white makes even the most prosaic actions, the ones that might "actually" occur, seem slightly unreal...
...well as to gird. Bright stripes, polka dots and designs are all over, lending underwear new snap, crackle and also pop. There is a panty brief with a printed-on image of an oversized zipper that never expected to or could get zipped, another with an American-flag motif. A third has a pair of eyes that wink from the rear, shed a tear in the front−virtually demanding comment from hasty psychoanalysts. Made by Treo to sell at $6 and $7, 150,000 of the briefs and panty girdles have already been ordered by department stores...
...country," says he of Italy. "Our people went to America because they wanted to eat." With her worldly goods wrapped in a kerchief, a barefoot mother rests with her squalling baby as if on a pilgrimage. Another panel above the doors bears the letters ITALIA and a wishbone-shaped motif of intertwined wheat stalks and vines. Like the bunches of onions hanging in Manzù's kitchen near Rome, it is a fruitful symbol of the emigrant's search, as the sculptor says, for "the two principal things-drinking and eating...
...carefully as ballet dancers in order to improve their speed. It quickly sets up another underdog. "No, no, Steinhouser," the baggagemaster shouts as a tinny piano bangs out a tune. "You're not making it, Steinhouser." In perhaps its most famous campaign, Doyle Dane originated the "Think Small" motif for Volkswagen...