tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post6249893379006341418..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: THE CONUNDRUM OF WATCHING CLASSIC FILMS, plus the Universal-International Cowboys and a Few Kind Words In Favor of NostalgiaDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-72562213190320999532010-06-09T02:10:02.643-07:002010-06-09T02:10:02.643-07:00"that those interested in film classics are n..."that those interested in film classics are necessarily uninterested in modern film"<br /><br /><br />lol, this statement is pure nonsense :)t-h-o-rnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-79267797466206938502010-06-01T09:52:09.303-07:002010-06-01T09:52:09.303-07:00Thanks, Vadim! Yours is too! And thanks for the ke...Thanks, Vadim! Yours is too! And thanks for the keen shout-out. If you ever get to L.A....Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-52319587306844839552010-06-01T09:34:00.443-07:002010-06-01T09:34:00.443-07:00Awesome! (Pot-stirring is what I do at the blog. Y...Awesome! (Pot-stirring is what I do at the blog. Your patience is appreciated.)Vadimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16748591562916338637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-74603727751531624072010-05-20T18:59:32.179-07:002010-05-20T18:59:32.179-07:00Great post.
I think what makes it so easy to get...Great post. <br /><br />I think what makes it so easy to get wrapped up in U-I Westerns — aside from the fact that they're usually quite good — is that there's so many of them and they're so hard to see.<br /><br />Coming across one is like finding a four-leaf clover. If they were everywhere, we wouldn't care.<br /><br />If I had Westerns Channel, my life would completely collapse into an endless stream of Coca-Cola, BBQ potato chips and Tim Holt. <br /><br />And I'm not sure that'd be a bad thing.<br /><br />By the way, The Naked Dawn is a masterpiece!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-82031919376104664652010-05-20T02:38:53.754-07:002010-05-20T02:38:53.754-07:00Nostalgia is a cheap shot you can always take out ...Nostalgia is a cheap shot you can always take out of the cheap shot locker and deploy against any work of art that was made under commercial auspices. You will never be accused of practicing nostalgia when you read a book by William Faulkner or F. Scott Fitzgerald or W.H. Auden or any other literary author whose work was contemporary with classic Hollywood studio films. (For that matter, you aren't accused of nostalgia when you watch Rules of the Game.) The basis of the nostalgia canard is the received notion that art created for profit is devoid of content, and thus anyone who admires it cannot be having a legitimate aesthetic response but must instead be acting out of some ulterior motive. Nostalgia is always the handiest. In reality, as Bernard Schwarz of The Atlantic has put it, it becomes more obvious with each passing year that the Hollywood studio film was one of the great artistic achievements of the 20th century. What the studio system did was to apply the methods of industrial production to the creation of art. That art can be successfully created in this fashion is anathema to certain notions of how and why art ought to be created, but succeed it did. Hollywood films transcended the limitations of the circumstances of their creation first through the talent of the filmmakers of the era, and most critically in how in this supremely collaborative medium they provided the primary artist with collaborators every bit as talented as he was. (See for instance the way Preston Sturges deployed the actors under contract to Paramount.) As each year passes there is another dimension to the movies of the studio era, and that is the window they provide to that foreign country where they do things differently. This dimension comes not only from what's on the screen – which answers a million questions you'd never think to ask – but in trying to imagine the minds of the people who thought of this as ordinary entertainment. This is a function of the time when the movies were made, but it isn't nostalgia. <br /><br />Of course, it's odd also that Hollywood films should be belittled on grounds of formalism when formalist criticism can be applied to them as easily as it can to any other kind of film.Robert Fiorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357467040644448167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-61331330747324753392010-05-19T18:28:15.226-07:002010-05-19T18:28:15.226-07:00Because I really didn't care for him in "...Because I really didn't care for him in "To Hell and Back," I've avoided pretty much everything with Audie Murphy. Now, dangnabit, you've given more more movies I've gotta see.<br /><br />As for l'affaire Rizov, I really don't think he's saying anything too strong if you ignore the perhaps unintentional condescension towards people less aesthetically obsessed than he might be. (Coming from a family of civilians for the most part completely uninterested in art of any kind other than as a fun timekiller, I've had most of such condescension burned out of me, even if they do see me as a combo of Frasier and Niles Crane, but with less money.) It's really not a bad thing to try and make stronger connections between the old and the new.<br /><br />Of course, I saw that as unashamed artistic reactionary who believes the primary function of movies is to tell compelling stories. We need the new but, at its best, I'm convinced that all it really ever does is constantly reinvent the old and never really quite improves on it, but at the same time reinvigorates what comes before at the same time.Bob Westalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515868620255715845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-2447647812629416242010-05-19T08:47:33.859-07:002010-05-19T08:47:33.859-07:00Peter: With all respect to Vadim, who I know for s...Peter: With all respect to Vadim, who I know for sure is one of those folks he described in his story as having a passion for film history while being oriented toward "the here and now," I agree with you completely that it is the theatrical experience that is central here. Some of the things I saw at TCM are still boggling my mind.<br /><br />And I must say, you make staying home and being sick sound almost enjoyable, what with that soundtrack of popping six-guns and rampaging cattle in the background. I like the thought of the drifting in and out.Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-70706967535554357132010-05-19T06:51:10.147-07:002010-05-19T06:51:10.147-07:00Even with film, the heart (and mind) has its own r...Even with film, the heart (and mind) has its own reasons. I think it is less important as to why anyone would show up to see classic films in a theater, than that people do show up. I was a bit mixed about the Japanese film festival that I attended last month because the programming was a bit conservative for my tastes. But than again, there are those people who have not had the opportunity to see <b>Seven Samurai</b> or <b>Late Autumn</b> theatrically. Additionally, the Denver Film Society needed to guarantee some money coming their way. I was glad that there were almost full houses for Mikio Naruse, and took advantage of seeing <b>Hausu</b> as you had recommended.<br /><br />The Western Channel is one of the few things I miss about not having cable. It is the television equivalent of comfort food, a channel I would click on on the days I was sick, watch for a while, without concern about missing anything while falling asleep in the midst of one movie, and waking up to the sounds of another.Peter Nellhaushttp://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.comnoreply@blogger.com