Drifting Clouds Cinema: “Bogart Smokes [videoessay]”

Drifting Clouds Cinema: “Bogart Smokes [videoessay]”

“What determines the meaning or mood of a scene in a Hollywood film? A genre (such as film noir), a star (such as Humphrey Bogart), an auteur (such as John Huston, Howard Hawks, John Cromwell, or Nicholas Ray), or perhaps a simple but evocative object, like a cigarette? A video essay that considers the role of what Bachelard calls “sexualized fire,” its social rituals, and the micro-gestures of a specific body in classical Hollywood cinema. In the end, only a single word is spoken.”

By Corey Creekmur