Posted by Soylent Bob is People! at du186074.lfd.ptd.net on January 29, 2002 at 22:46:24:
In Reply to: My Brain is about to go boom posted by Jim Fetzer on January 29, 2002 at 22:19:25:
Understand taht there are filsm out there that can be
appreciated on deeper levels rather than just visceral
pleasure.
Movies like the work of Goddard or Truffaut are at first
unsatisfying to the new viewer, but usually at some point, far after
the fact, you will realize what they were doing.
Take the diner scene in "masculin/feminin". From a superficial
standpoint, the scene is unsatisfying because the camera literally
dollies away from the protagonists conversations and begins invading the
other conversations of random people at the restaurant. It is only upon
deeper reflection that you think, hmm, perhaps he was trying to penetrate
the usual role the camera serves in a film, or perhaps show us that the
film world, the deigesis, in his film actually exists! Further, if you read the "cahiers du cinema", a film journal that both filmmakers contributed to heavily, you will see that, in fact, the filmmaker WAS trying to communicate a point about the artificiality of the background world that most narrative films avoid or gloss over.
Patience, young filmmaker. One thing you will learn about film, as with any art, is thta even the most unpleasant experiences will inform your later work in ways you cannot even today imagine...
Having said that, I concur with your statement of praise for DOGMA,
and further it by saying that there be method in Kevin's madness that
even he might be unaware of, though I doubt it...