You can see Shyamalan working through this in real time in Lady in the Water, behind the camera and in front of it. He’s bitter about the way The Village was received, to be sure — in a ...

Monet retreated to his oasis in Giverny, a village 50 miles outside of Paris, and continued the Sisyphean task he’d been laboring under for much the preceding two decades: painting water lilies.

After lunch, the genial fop hastened his guest to the pond because “the water lilies close before five.” Vauxcelles was drowsy with delight. “The leaves lie flat upon the surface of the ...