For the film lovers on the list

[Mark Kohut]

Laura and I are Icelandic Spar-like alike re this....1) I almost left, a moral coward,  when it began w elder care subject  2) knew it had had praise
but I, too, no longer read reviews in advance. (since I better have learned something from Kael, Kauffmann, Agee, Manny Farber and others)  3) Haven't yet read any reviews...
will though now...since I have found other ways to waste time...

Re: having learned fromKkael. A story. I got a chance in my later life to attend a Book Award event. American Beauty was the 'hot' new movie for fashionable discussion
and when I saw it right before I went, some perceptions from Kael percolated up and I remember dissing it to the friend I went to the ceremony with, quoting Kael's eyeglasses, so to speak.

At that Award ceremony, Ms Kael was given a lifetime achievement award in criticism (accepted by her friend, Roy Blount, who said she was too ill to attend and read her grateful words...

He also spoke of her still going to the movies, still talking about new ones......then he named two hot ones of the moment.....Thumbs up to one I can no longer remember
and thumbs down to American Beauty-----I turned to my friend full of predictive surprise--- with whom I rose in esteem.....

Is that too Iceland Spar-like? She filtered some of my brain and I could see just slightly refracted? 



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I just saw A Separation yesterday - it was playing across the street from a nursing care facility my elderly dad's in, and I needed relief.  At first, I was dismayed to learn that the story revolved around the care of an elderly man.  But then, as Mark said, the knotting into began.  It's a fantastic movie.  

I've learned to read reviews after, rather than before a movie, because even the most erudite reviewers are individuals, not ubermenschen, and they often steer us wrong.  What surprised me (or maybe it shouldn't have) about many of the reviews I read is that the reviewers felt obligated to take swipes at Iran or Islam, even as they admitted that the movie was so much more. 

Most reviewer saw it as a social drama about adapting to life under Islam, class, gender, etc.  Some lesser reviewers called it a melodrama or soap, nothing more. But the overwhelming message I got from the film was that, in the most complicated conflict (uh, would that currently be Israel vs. Iran?), there are solutions, but they require extreme patience, sensitivity and understanding.  Mark, have you read any reviews that take a political view of the film?

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>Sent: Mar 19, 2012 11:53 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: For the film lovers on the list
>
>On 3/19/2012 11:17 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>> JUMP CUT (but association from the Subject line):
>>
>> See A Separation if you have not. Were we talking about
>> a knotting into and moral centers?....The moral and character
>> subleties---and quotidian surprises---of this movie might cut to
>> your bone marrow.
>>
>> Integrity, lies--for a greater good?---moral (and pragmatic) choices
>> within an intricately knotted society......priceless............
>>
>  Sounds like a good fit for me.  Also movies with subtitles are greatly 
>preferred nowadays because of annoying trouble decoding anything but 
>American English spoken by people over 30.  Significant hearing loss is 
>a real social handicap. Advice to young'ens--take care of your hearing.
>
>P