M. Leary writes on film and the arts for a variety of outlets (but calls Film-Think home). After managing a bookbinding shop, for a few years he went on to complete his graduate education in the information technology of the first few centuries AD at several institutions in Europe. While not creatively pretending to write, he can be found mortising nipping presses, restoring your favorite old book, or rewinding the railway scene in Stalker ad infinitum. His found-material artists books have been exhibited in Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. His daughter is convinced that the lady in Matisse's "Bathers with a Turtle" is giving the turtle a special treat.
JCVD: What Do Awkward Letterman Interviews Really Mean?
On JCVD and the nature of celebrity.
Where is the Cinema?Some Cities and Films in 2008
In all of these films there is a looming presence of places: real streets, cafés, and bits of geographical lore that persist beyond the imagination of these storied tours. They are films intent on celebrating their chosen landscapes rather than using them to concoct the kind of infectious screenscapes Baudrillard discovered all over Hollywood. And though only one of these films actually takes place in an American city, they inform us nonetheless. We step out of theaters after films like this into St. Louis, Boston, Austin, or any other hazardously American city armed with ways to look at our neighborhoods and daily routines in similarly thoughtful ways.
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