tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post6758922749911207144..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: 10 FUNNY THINGS I HEARD ON THE DVD COMMENTARY FOR THE HUMAN CENTIPEDEDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-55290539224846576552010-11-01T19:46:10.549-07:002010-11-01T19:46:10.549-07:00Oh, and yeah, David, that was two times through. H...Oh, and yeah, David, that was two times through. Hopefully this excuses me from any obligation to see <i>The Full Sequence</i>?Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-54345596568478951352010-11-01T19:45:03.214-07:002010-11-01T19:45:03.214-07:00Peter: My pleasure? :)
Bill: As far as I could te...Peter: My pleasure? :)<br /><br />Bill: As far as I could tell, he was being serious. Perhaps someone else might be able to discern a smirk on the audio track, but I couldn't.Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-39603631925648897802010-11-01T19:43:26.846-07:002010-11-01T19:43:26.846-07:00David, I had forgotten that I had indeed read Ed’s...David, I had forgotten that I had indeed read Ed’s piece, and you’re right—it’s easily the best thing, pro or con, I’ve read on the movie. (<a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/04/tom-sixs-the-human-centipede-the-first-sequence/" rel="nofollow">Here it is.</a>) I particularly like Ed’s closer:<br /><br /><b>“A slave to routine, ritual, procedure, all that is clean, Heiter evinces that particular, obsessive-compulsive attitude often associated with Nazis. Six subtly asks us to imagine the man's previous lifework, how his devotion to correcting a mistake of the human birth cycle must have warped his mind to the point where he has become so repulsed by what humans are capable of producing—shit, he might call it—that he moves on to a more sinister line of work, one in which he debases us by fusing our bodies together in such a way that we become defined completely, from head to toe, by what we ingest and expel from them. This is a nihilist vision (Katsuro's final speech, like the film's open ending, certainly supports this), but it is also one rife with intriguing moral inquiry: What other unforeseen horrors are we—not just an imaginative filmmaker, but man in general—capable of inflicting on humanity before we feel as if we've seen and experienced everything? And will life, then, feel no longer worth living?”</b><br /><br />The problem I have (narratively) with the movie is entirely based in what I feel Six fails to do once that premise is unveiled, that is, move the story in a direction that might reveal something other than the dead-end presentation of Heiter’s vision with no follow-up. In my view, Heiter’s subversive vision is limited by Six’s satisfaction about his naughty idea. If Six’s approach were genuinely subversive, there might be more going on in the movie’s second half than the trotting out of more clichés that Six is clearly contemptuous of.Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-25999653174702242002010-10-31T16:06:24.022-07:002010-10-31T16:06:24.022-07:00"This is my homage to The Lion King, when Muf..."<i>This is my homage to The Lion King, when Mufasa lifts Simba to the sky.</i>"<br /><br />The <i>fuck</i>??? Dennis, you've listened to the commentary, and I haven't so tell me: was he being serious when he said that? Can you tell?<br /><br />Peter, you're not missing anything. It is as Dennis describes.bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-82205580352455384502010-10-31T15:42:16.681-07:002010-10-31T15:42:16.681-07:00Presumably you sat through it twice to listen to t...Presumably you sat through it twice to listen to the commentary. Wow. I'll say it again: Wow. I think I'd rather watch James Franco cut off his arm again. I should say that Ed Gonzalez wrote a very evocative rave at Slant. I don't agree but it's impressive when someone can make a smart case for a movie so dead on the screen.David Edelsteinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-56125298804415547162010-10-31T08:25:23.415-07:002010-10-31T08:25:23.415-07:00The more I read, the less interest I have in seein...The more I read, the less interest I have in seeing this film, or probably anything else by Tom Six. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.Peter Nellhaushttp://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.comnoreply@blogger.com