The New Century

David Liu | 23 January 2013

“Our eyes see very little and very badly – so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the telescope…now they have perfected the cinecamera to penetrate more deeply into the visible world, to explore and record visual phenomena so that what is happening now, which will have to be taken account of in the future, is not forgotten.”

— Dziga Vertov, 1926

imageMan with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

imageHoly Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

A Wind in the Door

David Liu | 4 November 2012

“It is a mistake to talk about the artist looking for his subject. In fact, the subject grows within him like a fruit and begins to demand expression. It is like childbirth.” 
— Andrei Tarkovsky

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)

Stop This Train!

An ongoing series.

David Liu | 11 October 2012

The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)

Breaking Bad 5X5: Dead Freight (Vince Gilligan/George Mastras, 2012)

All That Is, Is Light

David Liu | 4 September 2012

“All that is, is light.” — Stan Brakhage (1933-2003)

Candles illuminate a Tibetan Buddhist altar in Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Horse Thief (盗马贼, 1986).

A ceiling light flickers on in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A City of Sadness (悲情城市, 1989).

A hand taps a light bulb in the opening shot of Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (牯岭街少年杀人事件, 1991).

In the Beginning There Was Light

An ongoing series.

David Liu | 28 August 2012

“Because today there are only states of being — all stories have become obsolete and cliched, and have resolved themselves. All that remains is time. This is probably the only thing that’s still genuine — time itself: the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds.” — Béla Tarr

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Auguste Lumière/Louis Lumière, 1896)

The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)