NP Film recommendation (was ...

[Dave Monroe]

What ad hominem?  All anything here reflects on is yr
strange need to belittle just about anything and
everything I post, to make me out as some sort of bad
guy, apparently simply because I'm not one to
acquiesce to yr 

 simply out of sheer annoyance ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> (The ad hominem I'll continue to ignore, as it of
> course reflects on the senders more than it does on
> the target.)
> 
> on 28/12/02 6:02 AM, Dave Monroe at
> davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> > Anti-Australian [i.e. innuendo]?  Moi?
> 
> Er, right .... (Talk about "plausible denial"!)
> 
> on 26/12/02 7:12 AM, Dave Monroe at
> davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> > Now Merry Christmas and why don't y'all go open
> > some presents or watch some football (as in, "In
> > football, you have the punt ...") or roast some
> > chestnuts over an open fire or something?  Me, I'm
> > waiting to get to the theaters.  See Rabbit-Proof
> > Fence yet?  Right up yr alley.  Just opened here,
> > so ...

What's "anti-Australian" there?  Christmas Day here,
amongst my set, at least, IS largely watching football
(in teh American sense of course).  'Chestnuts
roasting on an open fire"?  Well, an Xmas "tradition"
I've never witnessed, but ... but "yr alley" IS
Australia, right?  You ARE Australian, right?  Calling
RPF "anti-Australian"?  Well, my understanding is, it
was the highest-grossing film on the continent this
past year, the equivalent perhaps of some hypothetical
US film about The Trail of Tears beating out
Spider-Man et al. at the box office (and Dances with
Wolves doesn't quite count--too ... schmaltzy ...). 
Maybe the phenomenal success of "Roots" way back when
might be the US equivalent, but ... but, apparently,
there are more than a few Australians who can face up
to their own problematic legacy.  Then again, these
little tirades of yrs generally seem to me simply a
surefire way to get me to waste my time waving 'em out
the window.  Maybe I oughtta get me a nice box fan or
something ...

> Even though it was Boxing Day here (all day), and
> cricket season, thanks a bundle for all that and the
> same to you (with bells on). And don't take this
> the wrong way, but maybe start thinking about a bit
> of a time-out for yourself big fella.

I left y'all alone for nigh unto a coupla days there. 
But, hey, I'm a workaholic, and I do like to check up
on the current slander from time to time ... 
 
> 'Rabbit-proof Fence' has been in cinemas here for
> months ... won a stack of awards, is already on
> academic curricula (and is highly recommended, along
> with the wonderful 'Beneath Clouds': dir. Ivan Sen,
> 2002,
> 
> http://jump-cut.de/berlinale2002-beneathclouds.html

And it's a hell of a film.  A labor of love and it
shows.  Here, Noyce was directing things like Patriot
Games (for which he was paid more than the entire
budget of RPF), though he does have an adaptation of
Graham Greene's The Quiet American forthcoming. 
Brandon Fraser, Michael Caine.  Saw trailer, will
hopefully see film.  Beneath Clouds I don't know, and
I fear that, with the demise of the only
decently-stocked video store in the city (whose bones
I will admit to having greedily picked, once the
inevitable was, well, inevitable), I might never get a
chance to see it.  But I did see the trailer for the
new Peter Weir film, that count?  And the new
Tarantino (Kill Bill).  My comment to the friend with
me was, that's gotta be Tarantino's dream film.  He
pointed out that it was more likely mine, but ...

But no need to get snotty about an Australian movie
playing in, duh, Australia first. I'm genuinely
grateful when we get anything at all here, though
things are getting better.  But I still make monthly
trips to Chicago to see stuff I'll never see
otherwise, and, even then, the stuff I caught in NYC
took months to get that far, if at all.  Then again, I
have film friends in places that don't even get our
scraps, so ...
 
> So I guess I'll rent out 'Amistad', 'Dances
> with Wolves' (which I've never seen, believe it or
> not, but re. which see _M&D_ 651.1, 663.5 &c), or
> mebbe that '1000 Nations' doco on video instead.

1000 Nations I haven't seen.  DWW was no doubt made
with the best of intentions, but we all know what that
highway to hell is paved with, right?  Romaticized, to
say the least, and that new agey sdtk.  Amistad didn't
play here long (and Bamboozled only played at a
"black" theater, both of which say more than a little
something about The Situation in this, one of the most
racially segregated cities in These You-Knighted
States, Northern OR Southern), and I had to wait for
it on video (no, I actually DON'T get to see
EVERYTHING that comes out, but I try ...), which is
decidely NOT how I'd have preferred to see it.  It's
okay, but I remember thinking that Barbara
Chase-Riboud DID have a plagiarism case there (and
check out her sculpture if you get a chance). 
Spielberg's just-out Catch Me if You Can is perfectly
entertaining, by the way ...

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