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The exactness of Jonathan Allen's summary of his quest is valuable, and the
'lumpy neologism' has great mnemonic force: it's the kind of thing that will
ensure a triggered response some time in the next twenty years when suddenly
someone in a film does exactly the uncinematic thing he's looking for.

It was a pleasure, also, to read about the near misses, and here's another:
the character in Godard's Eloge de l'amour who keeps flicking through a book
with blank pages.

Re: Vivre sa vie and the Dreyer scene: Nana (Karina) is not allowed to
remain in a state of silent beatitude: if you listen carefully you can hear
the man sitting next to her, who has paid for her cinema ticket, murmur the
name of the actress playing Joan (Falconetti) as she appears on screen, like
the irritating know-all cinephile he is, compared with the dumb 'bovarysme'
of Nana. (For more details on Vivre sa vie see:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/release/vivresavie/a-z/index.html)

There is a DVD of Vivre sa vie, produced by Fox Lorber as My Life to Live in
1999.

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Roland-François Lack