>> up to and including itself

Film

Reviews, criticism and essays on the silver screen

The film section has become the main focus of arbitrary constant. The reviews and criticisms within this section form a trace of arbitrary constant's learning curve in the medium and hopefully reflect an increasingly varied cross-section of films, genres, directors and world cinema. In time, essays will also be available that will explore different themes and aspects of film.

Snippets

The current available editions of Snippets are listed below:
  >> Snippets 06.04
  >> Snippets 07.04
  >> Snippets 08.04
  >> Snippets 09.04
  >> Snippets 10.04
  >> Snippets 01.05
  >> Snippets 02.05
  >> Snippets 03.05

Please note the Snippets section will be updated shortly.

arbitrary constant, in association with

In order to maximise the number of reviews to be included, the monthly feature Snippets provides shorter criticisms of those films viewed within the month that are not subjected to fuller analysis. Reviews in general will adhere to the Sight and Sound principle of film reviewing, which is to say that they will necessarily reveal plot points that may spoil your enjoyment of a film if you have not yet seen it. This is not done maliciously but necessarily in order to allow for adequate analysis of a film. The most recent reviews will be updated in the list below. If you would like to know when the site has been updated, please join the mailing list.

If there are ways in which you feel either the film section or any of the writing contained therein could be improved, then please make contact via the contact page.

Snippets 03.05

>> review

The latest edition of Snippets, including reviews of several Akira Kurosawa films.

Snippets 02.05

>> review

Seven new Snippets reviews, including Ocean's 12, Sense & Sensibility, The Servant and Big Fish.

The Seventh Seal

>> review

Ingmar Bergman's much parodied tale of mortality shows Death to be one hell of a chess player

The Village

>> review

With more twists than a tornado, M. Night Shyamlan's latest feature can't help but get its knickers in a, well, twist

Snippets

>> reviews

The first edition of Snippets in the new year, including reviews of The Bone Collector and Stage Beauty

Yeelen

>> review

Does "the greatest African film of all time" deserve to be judged on wider merits than simply its country of origin? arbitrary constant thinks it probably does

Saul Bass exhibition

>> photos

A series of 22 photos taken at the recent Saul Bass exhibition at London's Design Museum. Bass was responsible for some of the greatest film opening sequences ever created, including Hitchcock's Vertigo and North By Northwest, as well as some unforgettable sequences with long time collaborator Otto Preminger, including Anatomy Of A Murder and The Man With The Golden Arm. An essay on Bass's work and on film opening sequences will follow soon.