Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Thoughts That Once We Had (2015)

The Thoughts That Once We Had (2105)

Anthology Film Archives recently premiered this film in New York City, and did a retrospective of the director's work as well.  Thom Andersen is a director, film critic and teacher who has been working in film since 1965.  He is probably best known for his award winning documentary called Los Angeles Plays Itself. 

This film is a based on French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s writings on movies.  It uses clips from many different films, past and present, to illustrate its points.  Some of these clips are amazing, and many of them I haven't seen before.  The films is broken up into different sections based on chapters in the book, and it can be pretty interesting at times.  There is some wonderful war footage as well, some with Hitler visiting France as well.

Although it does drag a bit during a few segments, and the lack of credits for the clips on screen can make you a bit frustrated, this is an intriguing document of the history of film.  Unfortunately I did not get to check out any of his other works this time around, but would love to in the future.

7 out of 10 stars. 

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