Older movies are fascinating because they are not polluted or diluted
by everyone's distorted perceptions of reality by what they see in
movies and on TV.
I recently saw a 1 hour documentary about NICK LASALLE's book,
COMPLICATED WOMEN, essentially about the real live women who showed the
dimensionality of characters beyond saint, sinner, mother, daughter
before the CODE in 1934. Watch for these pre-code old movies and
you'll see some really interesting shows, specific examples of what
would be restricted in these were made post the code:
SHE DONE HIM WRONG
obscenity
RED-HEADED WOMAN
lower standards
NIGHT NURSE
undressing
GRAND HOTEL
passion
TARSAN
nudity
RIPTIDE
adultery
When one watches post-code movies, the restrictions are apparent by the
absence of real obscenity, passion, nudity, adultery (by female) but
worse is the limitation on character development, exceptions being
LUBITSCH and others who circumvented the code.
Unfortunately, many watching such post-code movies think they are
seeing reality...but actually, I guess not... I remember watching some
TV like LEAVE IT TO BEAVER and wondering where do these people live.
Guess we have no need to worry about not seeing reality today, however;
unfortunately, I still think much of what we see on TV is still for
show and not how real people are. Do many people know gals like those
in SEX AND THE CITY?
Still, I think we are much influenced by our media perceptions and I
really dislike 'professional' child actors who seem to know they are on
camera and smile on demand or, worse, with a demand.
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