From: "hugh bone" <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Aren't we all critics?
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 00:22:05 -0500


Hey! words are so tricky!

Hugh wrote:  > >I rarely want to see a film twice, even if I like it.

Karena wrote:  > I am really suprised to hear that you don't enjoy seeing
films more than once.

Hugh writes:

If I didn't enjoy seeing films more than once, I wouldn't.

I understand and agree with your reasons for multiple viewings,
and I find very interesting  recent posts of others about their
reactions while seeing a film, and how the film persists in memory.

"Twin Falls Idaho", took me to a place I didn't want to go and wouldn't let
me leave.  "Time Regained", I left.  Both were recommended by Andrew Sarris,
a critic whom several of us respect.

So even with the critics help, I have difficulty seeing some films
once.  It's different with paintings.  I like to revisit certain paintings
in the museums.  And with poetry, there are a few lines I  must re-visit,
but not often.  For me, this is just part of the mystery of art.  No two
artists are alike, no two viewers are alike.... still, we can communicate.

I just saw "Chunyang", which a local critic gave three and one-half stars -
four is the limit.  I may see it again.

It is a story of 18th century Korea, highly stylized.  There is an
off-screen singer-narrator who goes on and on.  It required a mental
adjustment. (I thought of the chorus in ancient Greek Plays.  I've only seen
one such play, "Medea", with Diana Rigg - a live performance - powerful.)

The Chunyang cinematography is great, except that all daylight scenes seem
to be shot through filters, giving somewhat the effect of a dark painting of
the Flemish school. Appropriate for the story, but sometimes I wanted real
daylight.

Its a "big" movie - many characters, crowds, landscapes, beautifully
integrated. Done in subtitles, only a few words bleached out.

New subject:  The following link is a French language site which gives 10
best of year 2000.  Number 1 is Yi, Yi, and three of the top four seem to be
oriental.

http://www.fluctuat.net/cinema/chroniques/destinees.htm






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