Section
Essays
Longer pieces about how films are built — staging, cutting, duration, and the decisions that are invisible when they work.
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The casino sequence
Gambling is one of the few activities cinema can film honestly in real time, and one it almost never does.
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Kitchen scenes
Cooking on screen is nearly always a performance of competence. The exceptions are more interesting than the rule.
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The cafeteria as a documentary subject
School kitchens have been filmed for a century, and the camera has almost always been pointed at the wrong end of the room.
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The long take and the lie
An unbroken shot is usually an argument that nothing was hidden. Often the opposite is true.
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Sound arrives first
Most of what an audience calls atmosphere was decided in a room with no picture on the screen.