Ways of Seeing: Yoel Meranda's Web Site

These are links to some of the posts I wrote to a_film_by, an auteurist Yahoo! Group. I tried to summarize next to them what they are about. Some of these posts are replies to previous posts and there were some great replies to my posts. In order to check them you can click the "Message Index" link on the a_film_by page.

You can find an index of early posts to a_film_by on Fred Camper's site.

#818 & #826: David Cronenberg's Crash and Spider

#910: a link to Tag Gallagher's "Reading, culture, and auteurs", one of the best things I read about cinema

#949 & #1001: On morality vs. art

#1005: Andy Warhol's films

#1260 & #1280 & #1287 & #1292 & #1360: On "genre" and "realism". Alfred Hitchcock' s Wrong Man (#1280).

#1433: Abbas Kiarostami's Ten vs. Charlie's Angels

#1438: Aesthetics vs. other pleasures

#1443: On sex vs. aesthetics

#1525 & #1530: Amos Gitai's Kedma

#1527: Art vs. populism, The Simpsons

#2669: Quentin Tarantino and Kill Bill

#2568: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak (Distant)

#3078: On negative criticism, Jean-Luc Godard

#14710: Lumiere films

#19066: Manoel de Oliveira's A Talking Picture and its politics

#19860 & #19870 & #19897 & #19921 & #19959 & #19963 & #19984 & #20060: A discussion with Zach Campbell on aesthetics, form and content. John Ford's The Searchers (#19921). Acting (#19870). Subtitles (#19963). Eric Rohmer, Literature (#19984).

#21486: "Directorial Personality"

#21488: My list of favorite films from the 00's

#21586 $ #21602: "Neutral style", Chris Welsby's The Tree, Andy Warhol

#22278: Is it a film?

#23458: A link to Richard Latto's website, a psychologist who investigates aesthetics

#23585: Peter Kubelka's Pause! and Poetry and Truth

#24079 & #24161: American Cinema after 1964, where Andrew Sarris left. Monte Hellman, Michael Mann, David Fincher (#24079). Orson Welles' Lady from Shanghai, Mike Figgis (#24161).

#24162: A list of my favorite 25 filmmakers

#24347 & #24353 & #24366 & #24384 & #24394 & #24494 & #24514 & #24634: A discussion with Zach Campbell titled "Plasticity". Punk music, Andy Warhol (#24353). Johannes Vermeer, Transfer between mediums (#24384). "Crisis of the image" (#24394). Sensual vs. intellectual in cinema (#24494). Stan Brakhage's In Consideration of Aesthetics and why I value my aesthetics (#24634).

#27912: Fatih Akin's Crossing the Bridge, which I have not seen

#28774: Stan Brakhage's The Art of Vision

#28818: Some thoughts on a_film_by

#28875: Raoul Walsh Retrospective at AMMI. Comments on Colorado Territory and White Heat

#29038 & #29054: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Laughing AT cinema, Gavin Elster (#29038).

#29147: Christopher Maclaine's The End

#29272: Maysoon Pachachi's Return to the Land of Wonders

#29453: About the Americans' insistence on their national cinema. Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

#29584: On "relativism", cultural norms and their importance. Some thoughts on the creation of artworks, and its relation to the art-experience.

#29633: Mike Figgis' Hotel. I still don't know what I think about it.

#29709: Mike Figgis' Leaving Las Vegas

#29970: F.W. Murnau's Faust, clearly one of the greatest films ever made.

#29983: On Peter Greenaway and his superficiality, ignorance. Thoughts on artists' work within limitations.

#30202: Roberto Rossellini's Francesco, giullare di Dio (a.k.a The Flowers of St. Francis), THE greatest film I have ever seen.

#32601 & #32642: An exchange with Matt Teichman on Jonas Mekas' Walden: Diaries, Notes & Sketches, and whether it is a challenge to auteurism.

#33990: John Ford's "The Searchers" and interpreting it only based on politics

#34154: Orson Welles' "F for Fake"

#34212 & #34232: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

#34437 & #34457: On Brakhage. Window Water Baby Moving, Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, Dog Star Man (#34437). Text of Light (#34457).

#34867 & #35819: On stories. Narrative in cinema.

#35989: Larry Jordan's Sophie's Place, one of the greatest films there is.

#39765: Jonas Mekas' Street Songs

#40748: On Comedy & Form

#40933 & #43057: On Michael Mann and Miami Vice

#41069 & #41074: David Slade's Hard Candy

#42656 & #42686 & #42690: Roberto Rossellini's Socrate

#43577: John Ford's Quiet Man and Rio Grande

#43587: On Dreyer

#43955: Dan Sallitt & Zach Campbell on Roberto Rossellini

#44061: On texture

#45984 & #46026: Languages in Arts

#46363 & #46370: "The poetry of tiny gestures" in Howard Hawks

#46472 & #46475 & #46478 & #46481: Zoom in Howard Hawks

A 3000-word essay I wrote for the Experimental Film History class taught by Chuck Kleinhans. It includes my discussion of Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena, Standish Lawder’s Runaway, Paul Sharits' T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G, Andy Warhol’s Blowjob and Ernie Gehr's Serene Velocity, Shift and Glider.

Structural Films: Meditation through Simple Forms

Reports I wrote for the same class.

Chris Marker's Le Fond de l'Air est Rouge (A Grin Without a Cat) (Seeing this film changed my approach to politics almost single-handedly.)

Juan Muñoz Exhibit in the Art Institute (Obviously, this is a not a film review.)

Myths, Legends, and Lies curated by Jim Trainor (The films I mention are: Lewis Klahr's Pony Glass, Zack Stiglicz's Aristophanes in Broadway and God the Pugilist, and Martha Colburn's Evil of Dracula)

Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival (The films I mention are: Robert Todd's Clip that I really liked, Catherine Webster's Spillway and Eve Heller's Her Glacial Speed)

Jonas Mekas' The Brig (Unfortunately I had to see it on video. Let me know if you think I missed something.)

An essay I wrote for that class during a midterm.