All Slights Deserved

In R.D. Laing 's classic study of schizophrenia The Divided Self he relates the case of a woman patient suffering with the condition who underwent a remarkable transformation after she became fixated with Federico Fellini 's film La Strada . Through identifying with Giulietta Masina's character and the physical and emotional brutality she suffers at the hands of Anthony Quinn's strongman, the woman was able a process of reassessing her own values and thoughts and begin turning her life around. It's testimony to the heartbreaking performance given by Masina, an actress often content to live in the shadow of her husband Fellini, but occasionally cast in his films to great effect. Such a work is Giulietta degli Spiriti ; a notch or two beneath the maestro's best but ket together by Masina's charismatic turn and with enough trademark flourishes and visual opulence to satisfy fans of the director. Masina plays - fittingly - Giulietta; a middle-aged housew...

So it's 2011, the last full year before the world is engulfed by chaos and destruction. Time, I think, to embark on a project that gives my life purpose and meaning; to fulfill the latent promise and finally achieve deliverance from my habitual indolence. A project so ambitious it may serve as an inspiration to others, but more likely will seem colossally pointless.... For each and every one of the next 365 days I intend to watch and review a different film. Those reviews will be published on this blog, for the interest and amusement of anybody that sees fit. Some will be long and detailed, others short, others digressing wildy from the intended subject. Feel free to comment on them if the inclination takes you. As somebody who loves film in all its myriad forms the idea is that over the course of the net year it will build up into a portrait of the world of cinema. I'll make no apology for the fact that my choices may often seem rather esoteric and non-mainstream. If yo...