Movie Diary 4/23/2009

Prometheus’ Garden (Bruce Bickford, 1988). A half-hour film from the underground clay animator chronicled in Monster Road, crammed with mind-bendingly relentless examples of Bickford’s cascading imagery. Mr. Bickford will attend a free screening of Monster Road and answer questions at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle on Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m. More details here.

The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953). Also relentless, if not mind-bending. This U.S. noir has some of the potency of Lang’s silent pictures, with the advantages of Hollywood efficiency and speed thrown in. Not all the supporting players are especially vivid, but with Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame in the underworld crew, they don’t need to be.