I have to admit: I love a blackened frame. These are some of my favorite hard-to-see moments from movies. I think I love the dark on film because that's where we can catch the most abstract images, if only for a brief moment. By the way, I just want to be clear: these are actual frame grabs and, in that way, they are completely unique. I say this only because these image-only posts of mine might seem slight, but they actually take me MUCH longer to compose than any literary efforts I make on this site. In other words, this stuff ain't easy, guys. Anyway, click on the images to see them in their fullness.
Miss Lowell is banked by a coupla goons in The Big Combo. (Joseph H. Lewis, 55)
Loretta Lynn (Patrick Flynn) singing "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," from Coal Miner's Daughter 2. (Patrick Flynn, 94)
The Bride sends one of the Crazy 88s to the blood-spattered floor in Kill Bill (Volume One). (Quentin Tarentino, 2003)
Rooftop fight from The Racket. (John Cromwell et al., 51)
Meshes of the Afternoon. (Maya Deren, 43)
Mike Hammer makes a foe's switchblade drop in Kiss Me, Deadly. (Robert Aldrich, 55)
The hidden gun. Dog Day Afternoon. (Sidney Lumet, 76)
Dead man walking in The Man Who Was Not There. (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2001)
Stalking. Made in Britain. (Alan Clarke, 82)
A flashlight barely sheds light on the case of The Thin Man. (W.S. Van Dyke, 34)
Cliff Robertson in Obsession. (Brian De Palma, 76)
Just one mighty hiss scares the bad guys away in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. (Tim Burton, 85)
Daniel Plainview, squenched while baptized in oil, as his partner drowns in the stuff. There Will Be Blood. (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Illusion. Black Ice. (Stan Brakhage, 94)
Talking and working, down in The Hole. (John and Faith Hubley, 62)
Jesse assures an untrustworthy friend is dead in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (Andrew Dominick, 2007)
A frug, starring Sal Mineo, from Who Killed Teddy Bear? (Joseph Cates, 65)
Sidney Falco recognizes his complicity in evil. Sweet Smell of Success. (Alexander Mackendrick, 57)
The opening image from Star Wars. (George Lucas, 77)
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. (Joe Layton, 82)
Her daughter points towards Heaven in The Rapture. (Michael Tolkin, 91)
The title character cries and prays for her mother's return in Ponette. (Jacques Doillon, 96)
Safe as a church. Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
Salina, left alone by the tree for the night in A Patch of Blue. (Guy Green, 65)
The daughter comes alive again--sort of--in Night of the Living Dead. (George A. Romero, 68)
Eve's preparation for suicide in Interiors. (Woody Allen, 78)
Pip runs right home at the beginning of Great Expectations. (David Lean, 46)
"Go ahead, Melly. Scream all you want." Gone With The Wind. (Victor Fleming et al., 39)
"Come on out, you bastard." Barbara Hershey, brave and resplendent, in The Entity. (Sidney J. Furie, 81)
A black man struggles for survival in the white man's army. The Dirty Dozen. (Robert Aldrich, 67)
Daniel watches his biggest mistake in Defending Your Life. (Albert Brooks, 90)
As Cool Hand Luke is whipped out in the yard, his fans and fellow prisoners respond. (Stuart Rosenberg, 67)
The fat man steps outside in the rain for a shower in Carny. (Robert Kaylor, 80)
Max Cady as upside-down, inside-out, black-is-white horror in Cape Fear. (Martin Scorsese, 91)
Boris Karloff in Black Sabbath. (Mario Bava, Salvatore Billitteri, 64)
A general (Sam Shepard) ponders his next move in Black Hawk Down. (Ridley Scott, 2001)
A high for Charlie Parker (played by Forrest Whittaker) in Bird. (Clint Eastwood, 88)
Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat in All The President's Men. (Alan J. Pakula, 76)
Modern man touches the future. 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
John Doe's most intimate thoughts, in black and white, from Seven. (David Fincher, 95)
For my 300th post on filmicability, I present the second part of my newest Cinema Gallery collection. As always, click on the photo to see it writ large.
Punk rock arrives in American Pop. (Ralph Bakshi, 81)
One unhappy army recruitment center. Drive, He Said. (Jack Nicholson, 71)
The chilling final image from Blue Collar. (Paul Schrader, 78)
The wrecked bus is raised to the heavens in The Sweet Hereafter. (Atom Egoyan, 97)
A Christmas Eve upchucking for Bad Santa. (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)
A dead platoon returns to confront their leader in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. (Akira Kurosawa, 90)
"Three Little Maids From School." Topsy-Turvy. (Mike Leigh, 99)
A shot from the outrageous Super 8mm camera commercial in I'll Never Forget What's'isname. (Michael Winner, 67)
"Smile. SMILE!" Blow-Up. (Michelangelo Antonioni, 66)
A hobo's nest in Sullivan's Travels. (Preston Sturges, 41)
A "victim" is taunted in Freeway. (Matthew Bright, 96)
The very definition of utter panic in Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, 80)
A boy teeters on a high-rise ledge in Antichrist. (Lars Von Trier, 2009)
David gets left behind in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
At the bottom of the well in Ivan's Childhood. (Andrei Tarkovsky, 62)
The Squid and the Whale. (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
Waiting for the boat to return in I Know Where I'm Going. (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 45)
Red Hot Riding Hood, in performance. (Tex Avery, 43)
Rick Danko takes the lead during The Last Waltz. (Martin Scorsese, 78)
Miss Kensington informs Mr. Stevens that his father has just passed in The Remains of the Day. (James Ivory, 93)
A Fokker hits the dirt in The Stunt Man. (Richard Rush, 80)
The ultimate punishment in Tales from the Crypt. (Freddie Francis, 72)
Saddam Hussein, proud of his breakdancing abilities, in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. (Trey Parker and Matt Stone, 99)
Another day On The Bowery. (Lionel Rogosin, 57)
The saucers smash into D.C.'s Capitol dome in Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. (Fred F. Sears, 56)
Perpetual assisted living--if you can call it that--in Coma. (Michael Crichton, 78)
Stanley, as a fly, tries to blow the raspberry through an uncooperative proboscis in Bedazzled. (Stanley Donen, 67)
The title character, hustling on the football field, in Gregory's Girl. (Bill Forsyth, 81)
Veronique toys with her puppet counterpart in The Double Life of Veronique. (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 91)
Debra Winger in an extraordinary desert portrait from The Sheltering Sky. (Bernardo Bertolucci, 90)
Hard steel plunges into an even harder heart in The Piano Teacher. (Michael Haneke, 2001)
Bedded down for the night. Lars and the Real Girl. (Craig Gillespie, 2007)
"Shit. I've got some sticky stuff in my hair." Sherilyn Fenn in Wild at Heart. (David Lynch, 90)
"How do I look?" The Man With Two Brains. (Carl Reiner, 83)
The professor makes a morbid toast in The Bride of Frankenstein. (James Whale, 35)
"Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the United States." Seven Days in May. (John Frankenheimer, 64)
The Chief prepares for freedom in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (Milos Forman, 75)
The Proteus navigates the ear canal in Fantastic Voyage. (Richard Fleischer, 66)
Rupert Pupkin conducts his show, with special guests Jerry Langford and Liza Minnelli!The King of Comedy. (Martin Scorsese, 82)
An addict's one upsmanship, from Drugstore Cowboy. (Gus Van Sant, 89)
Miss Lowell is banked by a coupla goons in The Big Combo. (Joseph H. Lewis, 55)
Loretta Lynn (Patrick Flynn) singing "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," from Coal Miner's Daughter 2. (Patrick Flynn, 94)
The Bride sends one of the Crazy 88s to the blood-spattered floor in Kill Bill (Volume One). (Quentin Tarentino, 2003)
Rooftop fight from The Racket. (John Cromwell et al., 51)
Meshes of the Afternoon. (Maya Deren, 43) 
Mike Hammer makes a foe's switchblade drop in Kiss Me, Deadly. (Robert Aldrich, 55)
The hidden gun. Dog Day Afternoon. (Sidney Lumet, 76)
Dead man walking in The Man Who Was Not There. (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2001)
Stalking. Made in Britain. (Alan Clarke, 82) 
A flashlight barely sheds light on the case of The Thin Man. (W.S. Van Dyke, 34)
Cliff Robertson in Obsession. (Brian De Palma, 76)
Just one mighty hiss scares the bad guys away in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. (Tim Burton, 85)
Daniel Plainview, squenched while baptized in oil, as his partner drowns in the stuff. There Will Be Blood. (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Illusion. Black Ice. (Stan Brakhage, 94)
Talking and working, down in The Hole. (John and Faith Hubley, 62)
Jesse assures an untrustworthy friend is dead in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (Andrew Dominick, 2007) 
A frug, starring Sal Mineo, from Who Killed Teddy Bear? (Joseph Cates, 65) 
Sidney Falco recognizes his complicity in evil. Sweet Smell of Success. (Alexander Mackendrick, 57)
The opening image from Star Wars. (George Lucas, 77) 
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. (Joe Layton, 82) 
Her daughter points towards Heaven in The Rapture. (Michael Tolkin, 91) 
The title character cries and prays for her mother's return in Ponette. (Jacques Doillon, 96)
Safe as a church. Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
Salina, left alone by the tree for the night in A Patch of Blue. (Guy Green, 65) 
The daughter comes alive again--sort of--in Night of the Living Dead. (George A. Romero, 68) 
Eve's preparation for suicide in Interiors. (Woody Allen, 78) 
Pip runs right home at the beginning of Great Expectations. (David Lean, 46)
"Go ahead, Melly. Scream all you want." Gone With The Wind. (Victor Fleming et al., 39) 
"Come on out, you bastard." Barbara Hershey, brave and resplendent, in The Entity. (Sidney J. Furie, 81)
A black man struggles for survival in the white man's army. The Dirty Dozen. (Robert Aldrich, 67)
Daniel watches his biggest mistake in Defending Your Life. (Albert Brooks, 90) 
As Cool Hand Luke is whipped out in the yard, his fans and fellow prisoners respond. (Stuart Rosenberg, 67) 
The fat man steps outside in the rain for a shower in Carny. (Robert Kaylor, 80) 
Max Cady as upside-down, inside-out, black-is-white horror in Cape Fear. (Martin Scorsese, 91)
Boris Karloff in Black Sabbath. (Mario Bava, Salvatore Billitteri, 64) 
A general (Sam Shepard) ponders his next move in Black Hawk Down. (Ridley Scott, 2001)
A high for Charlie Parker (played by Forrest Whittaker) in Bird. (Clint Eastwood, 88) 
Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat in All The President's Men. (Alan J. Pakula, 76) 
Modern man touches the future. 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
John Doe's most intimate thoughts, in black and white, from Seven. (David Fincher, 95) 
