Motorists: beware the mechanical whir of leisure. Criterion Collection’s wreckage-filled stills from Weekend

Although we love l’art pour l’art as much as the next postmodern aesthete-cum-aviator themed weblog, we’re also thoroughgoing political absurdists. So, all in all, we’re glad Jean-Luc Godard got off that weirdly Catholic purism of the early Cahiers du Cinema crowd and delved into his own committed style of satirical Marxism (even if, at times, it admittedly vacillates between incoherence and heavy handedness).

One of the more memorable gems of anti-capitalist cinema is, in our opinions, the mind-numbingly long traffic jam tracking shot in Weekend. Criterion Collection has amassed this lovely gallery of twisted metal from the film, reproduced here for your alienated pleasure.

via Criterion Collection

“The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is a tremendous sense of isolation”—Haunting cinemagraphs from Kubrick’s The Shining

In the spirit of hurricane-induced house arrest, we offer yet another series of cinemagraphs to continue our celebration of Kubrick’s distinctive mise-en-scene, which we began a while back with 2001. What better cure for infrastructural paralysis than the desolate-yet-claustrophobic creepiness of being trapped inside with The Shining?

A series of minimalist cinemagraphs from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey

It’s been well over 40 years since its debut, and not only does 2001 stand firmly in cinematic history, but it still reigns supreme among decades of sci-fi films which came after and were more than likely inspired by it. Perhaps the ideal format to nurture our obsession with the timeless elegance of his minimalism, this series of cinemagraphs does away with contextual distraction, leaving us alone in the room with nothing but pure Style and the unfathomable desolation of space. As a pioneer of atmospherically driven film, we’d like to think Stan would’ve appreciated the meticulous restraint with which these were approached.