Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 16:38:44 -0800
Subject: Re: lost dawg
From: Michael Moretti <moretti-AT-mac.com>


That the film was promoted as an art film - very subtly suggested by such
characteristics as the subtitles - is what riles me. I was hearing such talk
like "isn't it amazing that a subtitled film (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) is
getting such mainstream acceptance". The implication being that an art film
had somehow crossed over to the multiplex, and it's one that the everybody
can appreciate - even though it's really an art film...

Of course every culture has its stereotypes (archetypes?). But there's a
difference between what I as a westerner stereotype about, say, the Asian
world, and that which they manufacture themselves. In this case, I feel this
Asian movie has, as Ryan notes, achieved a very multilayered stereotyping
schema - instead of using indigenous Chinese characterizations, we have
actors with western phenotypes modeled upon Jewish individuals in a Sergio
Leone framework. Throughout the film, a little voice kept repeating: it's
the dancing Wu Li masters...

Anyone care to draw some distinctions between arty and art?

Michael

on 1/24/01 3:26 PM, Manuel Kalmanovitz G. at mk-AT-calle22.com wrote:

>> It's very difficult - nearly
>> impossible - for a filmmaker, who is accustomed to making mainstream fare
>> (i.e. films such as the Ice Storm and Run With Devil) to turn around and
>> deliberately make an art film (I would invite any examples of this).
> 
> Mmm... How about Steven Soderbergh and Schizopolis? I would also argue that
> as far as mainstream films go The Ice Storm is quite arty, in the sense that
> it is more complex than your average Hollywood drama.
> 
> And the subtitle debate... I think it was a very risky move. Subtitled
> movies -at least in english-speaking countries- are always seen with
> suspicion. People simply are not used to reading subtitles while watching a
> film (in Latin America all Hollywood films are shown with subtitles, with
> the exception of children's fare) and tend to see them as a sign of
> excessive complication.
> 
> and the comparison you make with either YiYi or In the Mood for Love seems
> unfair to me. Those two are product of the drama branch of the Asian film
> industry, while HDCT should be seen as inheriting the martial arts tradition
> of the same industry. It is an unfair assumption to see these two films as
> 'representative' of the Asian film industry while criticizing HDCT for not
> being so.
> 
> Also to see stereotyped characters as exclusively Hollywood is a HUGE
> mistake. Stereotypes are used in all national cinemas and to see them just
> as a manifestation of Hollywood is simply to be blind to the fact that
> stereotypes are powerful and useful in all kinds of cultures. Hollywood
> didn't invent them. and the fact that there are some in a film doesn't turn
> that film into a Hollywoodized, characterless, product.
> 
> Manuel
> 
> 
> 
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