tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post6987067143748846366..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: THE SLIFR MOVIE TREE HOUSE #5: SO MUCH TO SEE, SO LITTLE TIMEDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-60713218033638939162011-01-14T06:50:50.990-08:002011-01-14T06:50:50.990-08:00Within minutes we were all reduced to rib-bruising...<em>Within minutes we were all reduced to rib-bruising hysteria and I learned once more for the umpteenth time in my life that even the dumbest exploitation movie, to say nothing of a masterpiece like </em>Sucker<em>, is enhanced and heightened by the theatrical experience, especially if the audience is in genuine tune with the picture.</em><br /><br />This can work in the reverse, too! I once nearly walked out of a screening of <em>The Red Shoes</em>, one of my all-time favorite films, because the audience was so perceptibly <em>not</em> on the same page with it that I was made uncomfortable.<br /><br />Interestingly, <em>Dogtooth</em>, the film you go on to mention at the end of this paragraph, may be a film that I <em>dislike</em> because of the circumstances under which I saw it. Along with (if I remember correctly) a full house of my fellow Pittsburghers, I braved the cold to attend a special screening of the film at one of Pittsburgh's more inconveniently-located theaters as part of the 2009 edition of our <a href="http://www.3rff.com/" rel="nofollow">Three Rivers Film Festival</a>. The crowd felt <em>unsettled</em>, which was presumably Director Lanthimos's intent. And suddenly I had a choice: I could either <em>hate</em> the film for failing to engage me (because I was not engaged) and/or for what it was doing to everyone there in the theater with me, or I could decide to <em>love</em> it. But indifference was no longer an option, not when I could see that this was a movie that <em>affected</em> people, that it was a movie that <em>worked</em>. Alone in my living room, I might have just said "meh" and moved on with my life. But there in that theater I was <em>agitated</em>. And I remain agitated. And one of these days I will sit down with the film and figure out exactly why. All because I saw it out, not in!Andyhttp://andrewhorbal.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-24181067441138040502011-01-13T10:18:12.564-08:002011-01-13T10:18:12.564-08:00Dennis - awesome illustrative screengrabs of what ...Dennis - awesome illustrative screengrabs of what you were talking about in KING'S SPEECH. I admit that that worked on me on an unconscious level.Sheila O'Malleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05859697259996394827noreply@blogger.com