In my last post, I mentioned the 1981 film My Dinner with André. It's an almost two-hour film which consists of two old friends having a long conversation. It sounds like a gimmick film, and I suppose it is, in a way. But it's also very absorbing and entertaining. I actually wish there was a whole genre of such films.
Additionally, some of the subjects touched on have become even more relevant in the intervening decades, as a thousand clips circulated on social media attest.
You can watch it all on YouTube here, at the time of writing. Actually, the film has been freely available on YouTube for years, which I always take as an indication that the copyright holders don't really mind too much.
It's also the film that introduced me to one of my favourite pieces of music, Erik Satie's Gymnopédie Number One.
there is a sort of genre of movies like this (though i don't recommend them): mumblecore. i do recommend Greta Gerwig (who sort of came out of that scene, and shines in it, but is much better after she could get beyond it and do her own thing). Frances Ha, Mistress America and Lady Bird are all very good.
ReplyDeletethere's also Whit Stillman. and of course, Woody Allen.
Laeth.
That's interesting to know! I've heard of some of those but not all of them. I must investigate Greta Gerwig, who I've never heard about.
DeleteGerwig is mostly known as a director now, though I think she's a great actress and writer. she's working on a Narnia movie (that is already involved in controversy) and became really famous after making the Barbie movie (which is a sort of feminist fantasy). i didn't really it, but really it's not for me anyway. still, i recently read this 'catholic defense' of it and thought it was fair: https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2024/03/05/barbie-feminism-catholic-247423/
ReplyDeleteI read that article until I came to the usual litany of how the world isn't built for women. One could just as easily throw in a litany of how the world isn't built for men: male suicide, male imprisonment, male homicide, drafting of men in war-time, discrimination against fathers, etc. etc. I can gladly accept the basic point that we should celebrate women as women, as long as we are also celebrating men as men. Personally I think the name and concept of feminism is now toxic beyond all redemption.
DeleteBut anybody who responds to "You're beautiful" with "I know" is being obnoxious, if you ask me!
i'm also tired of the litany, and find it ridiculous and obnoxious. and i also agree that feminism is evil (as are all ideologies). but having said that, i do think there's something specifically anti feminine in our extremely technical and mechanical world (ironically enough, given the feminist screed). it's the same drive that shuns poetic expression, for example. and i do think that's worth exploring (though it's rarely done well).
DeleteLaeth
I watched and enjoyed DwA at the movie house when it came out.
ReplyDeleteAnd then rewatched on video about a decade later when I found it more difficult to get through.
I had another go just recently, and found the conversation - its deep assumptions, its self-righteousness, its entitled quality - literally unbearable. It seemed like the play's Ruling Establishment characters were examples of almost everything that is most profoundly wrong with the multi-national and Western world, now.
I certainly approve of the form of the thing (after all, conversation plays were invented by GB Shaw with Don Juan in Hell - from Man and Superman, Getting Married and Misalliance more than a century ago); but I find that I must have a basic sympathy with at least some of the assumptions, intentions, and views expressed and debated - or else it's a kind of torture!...
I can certainly sympathise with that. I do find some of the assumptions annoying, but it's nothing compared to the woke craziness in contemporary entertainment. On the other hand, I think there's a certain element of self-awareness about the film's snooty liberalism.
DeleteI didn't know that about Shaw inventing the conversation play-- thank you! My antipathy to Shaw is somewhat moderated, I must give them a read some day!