Trained in philosophy at Harvard under Stanley Cavell before the cinema at AFI, Malick’s slim oeuvre foregrounds this inheritance: each of his four features to date is a period piece of American history; each trains an eye on the natural world (and its relationship with humans and human technologie

Atmospheric, Beautiful , Chance, Citational, Contemplative, Dreamy, Ebullient, Elegant, Event, Feminine, Figurative, Fleeting, Flux, Hypnotic, Illusive, Joyful, Lyrical, Melancholy, Mythic, Open-ended, Perceptual, Playful, Polychromatic, Primal, Quiet, Rhythmic, Self-reflection, Silence, Smart, Sprawling, Sublime, Tragic, Tranquil, Violent, Visceral

With the advent of 16mm equipment came the birth of film as personal artistic expression, and Maya Deren led the revolution. The woman who was "her own avant-garde movement," had what can only be described as an eclectic set of interests. She immersed herself in political science, journalism, English

Avant-garde film, Death, Feminine, Feminist, Primal, Spare, Surreal

Another talented chip off the German Expressionist block, F. W. Murnau had a penchant for horror. With "Nosferatu" (1922) he brought the first of countless Count Dracula stories to cinematic light. Murnau made his Dracula as hideous, doomed, and gloomy as later incarnations are suave, elegant, and ta

Classic hollywood, Dark, Death, Elegant, Erotic, German expressionist film, Grotesque, Primal