Tag Archives: film

What is it to “Play”?

I feel like this is something I need to address for myself since I play video games, well, a lot of the time, but with so many conflicting ideas of what a video game is  and what defines it, I’m a tad bewildered.

I recently read Brendan Keogh’s article in Issue #5 of five out of ten and he describes “play” not only as the physical input into a controller or keyboard but simply being “engaged”, “I am still playing Grand Theft Auto IV, even if I am not pressing any buttons”. For most simple approaches to what video games are as a medium, this is very new; as Keogh also notes the idea that ‘playing’ is simply the user inputting commands via buttons, keys, or analog sticks is an assumption that sticks with us.

Continue reading →

Watching In Bruges (for the eighth time)

I went and watched this film again the other day and my god do I still love it. The humour is as dark as you’ll find and dry to boot. It must have been the 8th time I’ve seen it now but every time I get something new out of it.

I found this particular scene very amusing after having studied Cinema further in another subject over the course of this year. Unfortunately I could not find a video of the scene on YouTube (use your imagination) but the beginning of the scene we, very briefly, see that Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is watching Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and in particular the famous car bomb scene: a long take that displays night life before the climactic explosion.

We see only a few seconds however before the camera tracks up to Ken, who answers the ringing phone, proceeding to have a rather mundane conversation about Bruges.

The phone call consists of purely mundane chatter about Bruges and how pretty it is, how it’s a lovely place to holiday, which directly mimics the frivolous shots of the night life in Orson Welles’ original shot. Then the finale for the several minute take in Touch of Evil is the car bomb going off, directly compared to the request that Ken kill his accomplice.

It’s a very small detail but I love the film so much and seeing this very clever adaptation of film history in this modern film made me a little giddy, and deepen my respect for In Bruges’ cinematography.