Never seen Citizen Kane? Don’t know your Godfather from your Goodfellas? Nevermind, Movies.ie has the answer with the Blaggers Guide to Cinema
Ok so we’ve all done it at some stage; lied about our cultural prowess – either to impress an attractive student type or to put an annoying pseud in their place. “Ulysses? Of course I’ve read it!” (while desperately hoping they have absolutely no follow up questions). The problem is that sometimes we have neither the time nor the inclination to actually catch up with the classics. Never fear for movies.ie is here to do all the hard work for you with our blagger’s guide to the cinema.
1. Citizen Kane
Topping numerous cinema critics’ polls of the best films of all time, Orson Welles’ 1941 labour of love is also top of the list of films to casually drop into conversation to impress. The film tells the lifestory of industrialist Charles Foster Kane. Oh and Rosebud? It’s a sleigh.
What to say: “What keeps me coming back to the film again and again are the technical innovations. Welles’ use of deep focus and low angle shots really give a tremendous sense of depth and visual drama to the mise-en-scene.”
2. Un Chien Andalou
The combination of perhaps the most visually recognisable artist of the twentieth century, Salvador Dali and the innovative director Luis Bunuel is a pseudo-intellectual dream. So you’ve probably seen the infamous eye-slitting scene but what about the rest of it? Needless to say, as an exercise in surrealist cinema, this is a confusing watch; silent and light on plot it features ants and armpit hair heavily.
What to say: “The film is more than a series of unconnected images, it is a visual representation of Freudian theories of the unconscious mind.”