> We're all just venting our little opinions, at least
> I
> know I don't KNOW which is one more thing than you.
>
Dear Melanie
I don't understand either your tone or the sense of
what you are saying. I presume that as well as venting
we all would like to learn something and exchange
these opinions perhaps. in which case some principles
need to be adhered to. Falsification should be
discouraged as should, for instance, as should giving
a 100% certain opinions of films that the opinioned
hadn't seen. That's what I thought was lazy.
Schindler's List has received criticism on this list
for being expensive and making money. In your email
you also refer to ulterior motives which the
filmmakers might or might not have had. These
(political economic) motives you state stand aside
from the motivation of simply making a good film.
However, from the student film I made at nineteen to
the next James Bond movie these motivations ulterior
or stated, conscious or unconscious, are always
present and are inextricably entwined.
Gary Gach stated another objection in terms of
plagarism. This is a tricky matter. It goes to the
heart of our anxiety for authenticity which surrounds
accounts of the holocaust. This argument can be used
against Speilberg and the producers but I don't think
it can be applied to the film. The film stands. We can
view the film in the complex interplay of all the art
that has come before and now all that has happened
since, but neither film cancels the other. The primacy
of the polish film or even the book should not be
presumed. Maybe the book was less like the historical
Schindler than the film. The primacy which gary
assumes for the book leads us back to aiming for an
authentic route to the truth. Using survivors as
actors doesn't necessarily get us to the truth. I feel
Kenneally felt this when he wrote the book as a novel
rather than as a history book. He felt that fiction
can deal with fact without having to inhabit the
prescribed form. I feel this is also true of Life is
Beautiful.
best wishes to all
john
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