A few weeks ago on Twitter, I saw a set of hand-drawn study notes of Jean Painlevé's 1928 documentary short The Octopus, done by University of Toronto professor James Cahill. I loved how it gave me an impression of the visual shape and flow of the film, sight unseen, and asked James to view & sketch my favourite scene from Ulrich Köhler's IN MY ROOM (trailer), where Kirsi returns in her RV to protagonist Armin, they share a tender conversation as well as some ecstatic dancing, before she leaves again:
James Leo Cahill is a professor of Cinema and French at the University of Toronto and author of the forthcoming book Zoological Surrealism: The Nonhuman Films of Jean Painlevé (University of Minnesota Press, 2019). "I sometimes draw films I write about in order to have a full account of them before my eyes in a single view. Drawing helps understand a film at the level of form, and know it differently. Plus drawing is fun!"
Copyright: Michelle Kay Follow us around the world of film. Our blogger Jutta Brendemühl is the Goethe-Institut Toronto's Program Curator and happy to hear from you.
Jutta is lucky to do what she loves: arts & cultural programming & writing across the genres, through a global lens. She has worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Rauschenberg, Wim Wenders, and other luminaries, and is one of the Directors of the European Union Film Festival Toronto. Her reviews are indexed on IMDb; bylines have appeared in POV, ScreenPrism, Vague Visages, Die Zeit. She is a fellow of the Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab.
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