Carnival of souls

* Oh man, is this ever a treat: David Bordwell on Martin Scorsese, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, and Soviet Montage. Bordwell offers a really astonishingly clear breakdown of Impressionism vs. Expressionism: Expressionism depicts subjectivity in what the camera records, while Impressionism depicts subjectivity in what the camera does. (Montage is a separate beast, done through editing and not really interested in subjectivity, because Communism is incredibly dull.) Extensive analysis of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Bringing Out the Dead follow, as do a few paragraphs on Crank 2: High Voltage. God I love the Internet.

* By all means read Mike Russell’s fine, wide-ranging interview with Paul Pope for AICN. Interesting guy, great cartoonist, lots and lots to talk about.

* Tom Spurgeon weighs in on whether or not comics can be scary in a very novel fashion: He says that in addition to whatever obstacles are inherent in the medium itself, there are institutional and logistical disincentives that prevent most comics and cartoonists and, importantly, readers from even trying.

* Recently at Robot 6: Cameron Stewart’s Batman: The Tattoo (it wasn’t up yet yesterday, sorry), Black Hole: The Photos, and pood: The Motion Picture.

* How does the Lost cast think Lost will end? Their guesses are as good as ours, I guess…