>From: Eric willstaedt <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Film-Philosophy Salon <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Appleby-speak, good cinema
>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 21:12:21 EST
>
>it would certainly have helped in _Boise-Moi_ and like Euro-trashy films
>that
>want to be like mainstream films....
>
>Eric
What if a director likes sex and violence and sees a link between the
pornographic and the political as well? Lucky pervert! Does that mean that
without a prelude to the linking that there must be a critical inquiry into
it all?
How does Eurotrash want to be Mainstream?
The spectacle of sex and violence is always disturbing when there is no
explanation offered for why it is being shown in the first place. I think,
if there is any value to Boise Moi at all, that is how I would put it. Sex
and violence are so spectacular and pop culture(s) is consistent in creating
the mystique of both. "Oh yeah, they are meaningful!" But take away the
intentional pretense of meaning, leaving just the sex and violence, and then
people become disturbed. However, this is sort of a vacuous criticism of
spectacular society because it doesn't call anyone to enact a change anyway.
It isn't a real fable, it is merely fabled: in years to come, kids with
orange hair will be protesting Blockbuster for not carrying it and passing
around an old copy. People will articulate political schemas as they
masturbate to it...big deal!
On the other hand:
Have you ever watched Russ Meyer films...never wanted to be mainstream, but
they certainly are. Also, there is as much political worth to *Beneath the
Valley of the Ultra Vixens* in its crass comparison of a white,
American-hillbilly middle class to sex-starved and breast-fixated Nazis as
there is in *Saving Private Ryan* as it considers the value of war via vague
questions such as "Did I do the right thing?"
just do it,
heh
gary norris
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