I have to admit I rather liked Meryem Ersoz's very thoughtful comment about how it is helpful to students (and others) to be able to reject a work of art, in the name of building a set of coherent values. But the incisiveness and gentleness of Meryem's writing, which did utterly sway me, still don't bring me comfort when something I think is very special is rejected. So be it, Meryem--I must be some kind of deist in the end. I just won't reject the matter-that-is-above-criticism, but I would like to think (and I hope I'm not being hopelessly self-serving in this) that I wouldn't be likely to find elevated to such a plateau material that is debasing. And then up pops the question of whether the material *exists* on a plateau, or whether *I put it there* and blah blah blah. We could go on and on, and we will. But look just very very very briefly at something in BLOW-UP, for a tiny case in point: at the end, after the evening pot party and before the morning of the awakening of the photographer in the same flat, there is a temporal transition accomplished by Antonioni, where we are focussed on a white sculpture in a reddish atrium (that leads to the "back room") and some people--I think the girl with black hair and the long white dress among them--have moved into the back room--and we hear the chattering voices, and the voices slowly disappear, and after we have silence, the camera pans and it's morning. So time passes through sound alone. And it's just simply one of the most beautiful transitions I know. I know, too, that Meryem would agree. And if some student says, "I didn't stay to watch that. The film was sexist bullshit," I just have to feel anguished and sad. ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]