Akira Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog'

This shot is taken from the climactic scene where Mifune's character confronts the thief who stole his gun.
(the characters are just visible, - in this reduced image,- standing between trees in the middle background)
The girl had been playing the piano in the front room of her home and had been startled by a gunshot sound.
Its not too clear here, - the BFI print isn't the best but I don't think they were in early post WWII Japan, or, at least, not very well maintained, - but the scene is set in a misty early morning and parts of the scene reminded me of the climactic scene from Joseph H. Lewis' noir Masterpiece, 'Gun Crazy'.

I think 'Stray Dog' is probably my favourite of Kurosawa's three great contemporary crime dramas, - 'Drunken Angel' and 'High and Low' being the others.
The latter film is a stunning tour-de-force, but I think 'Stray Dog's wonderful blend of the intimate, poetic, and the neo-realist shade it for me

Ten Great Shots From Favourite B & W Movies

Nowadays if a director films in black and white he tends to be considered pretentious, or self-consciously arty.
Of course, up until, I think, the late 1930s pretty much every movie was made in black and white so the distinction didn't arise.

I remember looking forward to getting our colour television and seeing more and more of our favourite films and series in colour, but nowadays perhaps the majority of my very favourite films were filmed in black and white: in fact, Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' is the only one of my all-time Top 10 films which was shot in colour.
Which inspired this idea.

But, as a comparison, I'll also post 10 favourite colour film shots: not necessarily the most painterly beautiful, or aesthetically pleasing, but impressive shots

DVD of Chereau's production of Wagners 'Ring' cycle

Watched the entire set over 4 nights, - excluding Sunday, - from Thursday 27th May through the following Monday, and right now I'm only looking forward to watching and enjoying it again.
What quickly struck early on in my viewing of the first of the four opera of the cycle, 'Das Rheingold', was just about how much fun it is.
Of course opera was far more the 'mass entertainment' for contemporary audiences than the 'elitist' art form it is these days, and Wagner, perhaps more than any pre-20th Century composer, helped to foster this notion among 20th, and 21st Century audiences.

Musically, for the most part, the stereotypical doom-laden power chords are all pervasive, - although 'Siegfried' music is for the most part a gentler, more lyrical score as befits the initial optimism attaching to the doomed hero, - but while this befits its grand, and ultimately tragic, theme, the score is composed of many layers, and many moods.

Theatrically, I thought I detected many sources, or resonances in this production: sources, Grimms Fairy Tales; Grand Guignol horror; pantomime villains, while it seems to have influenced Brecht, German Expressionism, and probably any number of operatic composers that followed.
(admittedly Chereau's version is considered a fresh and revolutionary take so what I detected may not have been part of Wagner's original vision)

As befits an operatic 'cycle' much of what followed 'Das Rheingold' linked back to it, and eventually came full cycle, in the climactic final opera, 'Gotterdamerung'.

Apparently, 'The Ring' is composed of a large number of intricately and meticulously constructed 'motifs' so its construction and musical brilliance can better be appreciated when one is armed with these details.

I think I'll delay studying that until my 4th, or 5th viewing of the Cycle.
Right now, there's far too much to derive from viewing it as sheer ENTERTAINMENT genius!