THE SONG THE LEPER SINGS

Only God Forgives (2013) | dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

Cinematography by Larry Smith

“What is that American promise? It’s a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have obligations to treat each other with dignity and respect,” Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. And that section of the speech opens Andrew Dominik‘s seething “Killing Them Softly,” as he cuts the audio between white noise and the silent black title screen, signifying the blind emptiness of Obama’s statement and the thematic current he’ll be taking for the film. We are not a changed nation. We are not a nation of equals...

A Clockwork Orange (1971) | dir. Stanley Kubrick

DoP : John Alcott

My friend’s in the middle of the road bleeding to death! Can I please use your telephone?

Robert De Niro photographed by Santi Visalli in NYC, 1973

Hansel and Gretel (2007) | dir. Pil-sung Yim | South Korea

For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I’m suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I’m not leaving… maybe I’m going home.

Gattaca (1997)

Only God Forgives (2013) | dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

Cinematography by Larry Smith

Bong Joon-ho

Withnail & I (1987)

ph. ©Murray Close

'Withnail was made by HandMade Films, George Harrison's company. Ringo Starr popped down one afternoon. It wasn't like this was a big film - everyone was saying, "Oh my God, Ringo's coming to see us..."'

Look for the unimaginable inside the ordinary. Go to places you would not ordinarily go alone - riverbanks. Deep woods. The part of the ocean shore where peoples’ gazes disappear. Wade in all waters. Let your imagination change what you know.

Lidia Yuknavitch, from her preface of “The Chronology of Water,” c. 2011 (via violentwavesofemotion)