SCREEN-L Archives

March 1999, Week 3

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 14:12:30 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (42 lines)
scott hutchins says something that may help us think more
clearly about, if not resolve, the conflict over LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
. . . comparing that film to SHAK IN LOVE scott says . . .

      The story of that film  [SIL] was really stale, enlivened
     by good writing, acting, costume design, and music, but
     the plot was still dead tired

and i think that scott is absolutely right, but that his argument
misses the point . . . the creators of SIL of  course know all too
well how cliched their plot is taken by itself, but they also know that
such a plot can be invigorated by good writing, which they do
wonderfully well . . . cognoscenti can enjoy the kind of self-irony
that pervades the film's well marked awareness of how trivial the
plot itself is, while others can simply enjoy the ride provided
by the writing on the back of a tired but eternal plot . . .

the makers of LIB, on the other hand, might well have thought
that they have come up with a new plot . . . they haven't . . . i'm
not even sure if really new plots are possible . . . what matters is
the fit of the plot to the context and the writing itself . . . i
hope no one wants to make the case that LIB is wonderfully
written . . . which leaves only the matter of the fit of that plot to
the death camp setting . . . for many of us that was a bad fit, not
because [or not only because] of anything inherent in the material
itself, but because of the skill in bringing the pieces together . . .
whereas in SIL the pieces fit splendidly . . .

to put it another way, LIB thinks it's saying something new--but
it's not . . . SIL knows that it's not saying anything new, winks at
us about the impossibility of saying anything both new and true,
and goes on to tell its old story with sublime panache and wit

when [he asked disingenuously] was the last time a film that
trafficked in wit won an oscar??

mike frank

----
Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu

ATOM RSS1 RSS2