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March 1999, Week 3

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From:
"Edward R. O'Neill" <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 15:00:10 -0800
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Are the accusations against the current film
_Elizabeth_--that the style derives from MTV--really
common?  Can anyone refer me to an example in print?

Isn't the more obvious comparison to _The Godfather_?  I.e.,
family rivalries, chiaroscuro lighting, young scion of
family assumes patriarchal responsibility at the cost of
personal happiness, penultimate cross-cutting bloodbath,
etc.  Isn't it all just lifted straight from _The
Godfather_?

Granted _The Godfather_ gets a lot of its thematic material
from treating what had previously been gangster iconography
as post-Elizabethan drama (specifically Webster)--as a UCLA
Theater major, the director would hardly have been unaware
of these references--and _Elizabeth_ just returns the favor
by borrowing the visual and editing strategies back to the
proper time period in order to "update" the visual style and
to differentiate itself from the Masterpiece Theater
tradition.

Whence the excuse for comparing _Elizabeth_ to MTV?

Sincerely,
Edward R. O'Neill
UCLA
General Education Program

[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> Considering the accusations of _Elizabeth_ being MTV, I'm sure I'll get
> attacked with that, and assumed because of my age to have been weaned on
> MTV.  In truth, it was inspired primarily by 1920s avant-garde cinema,
> plus Maya Deren and others, and around a particular theme.

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