Tag Archives: Meditation

Experimental Cinema, Snow & Saïto

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971, 16mm) A meditation of time itself. Challenges the viewer’s capacity for prayer as it entangles the spiritual and physical in worlds both of the reveler and the revealed through a form of fixed yet … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Reviews (capsule) | Tagged 16mm, 35mm, avant-garde, cataclysm, daichi saito, ecstasy, energy, entropy, Experimental, experimental cinema, film, film grain, infinity, leaves of axis, light & sound, math, Meditation, michael snow, phenomenology, philosophy, physical, prayer, Psycho-physical, Space, spiritual, Time, time & space, trees of syntax, vanguard | Leave a comment

Bloodsport: A Prime Example of Affective Cinema

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

In spite of nostalgia’s effect on my revision, and in spite of Bloodsport’s apparent contrast to what we generally deem cinematic art, the cult-classic remains fastened on the minds of many a cinephile. Such a phenomenon surely calls for retrospection, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Essays | Tagged affective cinema, bad films, bela tarr, bergson, bloodsport, bolo yeung, chong lee, cinematic art, Cinephile, cult, cult cinema, deleuze, eisenstein, emotion, frank dux, good bad films, guilty pleasure, high-art, intuition, jean claude van damme, kumite, low-art, martial arts, Meditation, Narrative, newt arnold, perception, post cinematic affect, razzie, retrospection, review, revision, sound image, space image, steven shaviro, time image, total image, Transformation, vulgar auteurism | Leave a comment

Mundane History (Anocha Suwichakornpong) Review

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

Though rather unassuming, Mundane History conveys this dreamy energy whose effects are felt for days to come. As the title commits, the narrative events are monotonous. Yet paired with a non-linear timeline, the blatant monotony becomes the driving force of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged aocha suwichakornpong, birth, cinema, Consciousness, Death, energy, History, Life, Malick, masterpiece, Meditation, Memory, monotony, mundane history, relationships, stars, Thai Cinema, Thai Film, Time, universe | Leave a comment

A Beautiful Poem: Kiarostami’s Life, and Nothing More…

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

Life, and Nothing More… is breathtaking in its simplicity. What may be seen as an overt metaphor is instead realized on a deeply spiritual and philosophical level. Kiarostami gracefully allows the film’s landscape to breathe life through the film. He places … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged abbas kiarostami, Austerity, beautiful, Beauty, breathtaking, cinema, cinema as life, elegance, essential cinema, film, film as life, film review, Iran, kiarostami, life and nothing more, Meditation, metaphor, nature, poem, Poetry, Simplicity | Leave a comment

Sátántangó (Tarr, 1994)

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

Tarr’s poetic vision, a realism so uncanny, so surreal, so alive, is realized in each and every frame of the film, only minorly slighted by Tarr’s undeniable social-satirical agenda. This affectation of his work, which is exceedingly present in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged Art, bela tarr, cinema, Cinematography, Contemplation, Experience, Film Art, foreign cinema, Humanity, hungary, long film, long take, Meditation, messiah, mihaly vig, monumenal, music, palinka, Poetry, satan's tango, satantango, social-satirical, Space, space-time, tango, Time, transcendence, world cinema | 1 Comment

Sátántangó Explained (Tarr, 1994)

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

There are many people who think the end is the beginning. It is not. At least not in the diegetic sense. The end is exactly as the doctor describes: 13 days after he is hospitalized. That is, 13 days after … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged bela tarr, cinema, estike, eternity, explained, futaki, hungarian cinema, hungary, irimias, kasner, long films, long take, Meditation, mihaly vig, narration, palinka, philosophy, Poetry, presence, satan's tango, satantango, schmidt, Space, tarr, the doctor, Time, time presence | Leave a comment

Knight of Cups (Malick, 2015/16)

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

Easily Malick’s most impenetrable film, as well as perhaps his most visually breathtaking. The subject matter is rather scattered, with little of a sense of grounding in the lead character’s life. Instead it uses poetic devices and artful cinematography to … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged antonio banderas, Beauty, Cate Blanchett, christian bale, Cinematography, Contemplation, desert, energy, genius, great beauty, high life, knight of cups, la dolce vita, Lubezki, Malick, mass ornament, Meditation, metaphysics, natalie portman, prayer, Religion, Spirituality, Spring Breakers, sunlight, superficial, Terrence Malick, vitality, woman | 1 Comment

Ordet (Dreyer, 1955)

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Such perfect mastery of time and rhythm perhaps unequaled in cinema. A chamber drama with few scenes, each austerely captured by the observing and detached gaze of a languid camera, which carefully tracks the actors deeply nuanced performances in long … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged agnostic, Art, best movies of all time, black and white, carl theodor dreyer, christ, christian, Cinematography, clock, Contemplation, cross, danish, denmark, destiny, dreyer, eternity, faith, farm, fate, Foreign Film, fundamentalist, ghost, God, gods, jesus christ, kingdom of heaven, Life, long take, lord, madness, Meditation, mental disease, mental illness, mindfulness, Mise-en-scene, Movies, ordet, prayer, presence, psychosis, Religion, resurrection, revelation, revival, Spirit, Spirituality, sweden, ticking clock, Transformation, word, yin and yang | Leave a comment

The Long Take and Mindfulness

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Branching from my recent post on the film cut and mental anxiety, I’d like to now put into context the opposite phenomenon, the link between long takes and mindfulness, a notion that often leads to theories on the therapeutic value … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged andre bazin, anxiety, attention, awareness, buddhism, cinema, Cinematography, conscientiousness, conscious, Consciousness, Contemplation, dharma, eternity, harmony, kracauer, Life, long take, Malick, Meditation, meditativeness, metaphysics, mindfulness, Mise-en-scene, moment, nirvana, peace, philosophy, physical reality, presence, psychology, pure cinema, pure experience, Samadhi, self-aware, self-help, Sokurov, stress, tranquility, vedanta | Leave a comment

Mother and Son (Sokurov, 1997)

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

A veil upon which reality is traced, augmented, and distorted just such that the uncanny is revealed, penetrating pyschological depth. Sokurov’s iridescent cinematography as usual brings life to nature, rendering striking three dimensionality while conveying the mystic phenomenon of object … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged Art, bravura, breathing, colour, Contemplative, family, iridescence, Love, Meditation, mindfull, mother and son, painting, Poetry, prayer, pyscho-sexual, Russia, Sokurov, soviet, Spirituality, Tenderness | Leave a comment