Dan Conley

One of the tropes of gangster films is the moment where the crime boss starts to see everything he’s built start to slip away. You could argue that every episode of “The Sopranos” is about examining that state. The fake world of power and safety begins to crumble. The

One of my other all-time favorite films is “Hiroshima mon amour,” the 1959 Alain Renais movie about a short-lived but intense love affair between a French actress, played by Emmanuel Riva, and a Japanese man, played by Eiji Okada. The story takes place in Hiroshima and is infused with memories

The plot point about mice in Julie’s apartment feels like a short film within the film. It’s a microcosm of her beliefs and actions, one that faces off her innate fears with her maternal instincts. Julie returns home from the market, where she apparently bought nothing but a

This segment starts with a lie. Anka is examining the shards of glass in the door that Michal shattered and he says, while changing his shirt, “it was a draft.” She gives a bemused “hmm,” sits down and asks if he has a cigarette. He lights one for her and

We now reach the turning point of “Blue,” a collection of four scenes where Julie’s journey toward individualism and freedom meets various forms of resistance. It begins with her swimming alone in a stunning blue pool. Julie is again in that womb-like state, free in her exercise and meditation.

This is my second attempt to write this essay. I completed a version of it and I thought I’d published it. But when I went to retrieve the URL so I could cross post it to Authory, it wasn’t in my list of posts. I found it in