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Re: Request and New Thread
On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Jeff Ostrom wrote:
> In fact, many of Peter's reasons for "not caring for" the movie are
> things that I loved about it. I, too, had most of those conversations
> back in my college days.
Heck, I *still* have them. Who needs college when you've got science
fiction? :)
> Also, I can see where Peter (or anyone else) might be disenchanted with
> the lack of narrative, or anything more than a skeletal plot at best. I
> found that completely in character for the film.
Heh. This reminds me of the Kate Beckinsale character in _The Last Days
of Disco_, who, on being told that her plan to become a successful writer
sounds too "formulaic", replies, "Of course, it's a formula." :)
One of my five favorite films of all time, _Koyaanisqatsi_, has *no plot*
whatsoever, so whatever my problems with _Waking Life_ might be, the
absence of a conventional narrative, per se, is not one of them.
http://peter.chattaway.com/movies/topten.htm
> The way the animation and visual styles complemented and enhanced the
> dialogue was outright breathtaking.
Sometimes, but not as extensively as one might have expected.
> By the way, Don, I totally agree with your analysis of the "holy moment"
> scene, but beyond justifying the film, it succeeded in exploding my
> awareness of the numinous aspects of everyday life.
That was a seriously ironic scene -- you've got a guy arguing that movies
capture manifestations of God, yet he's in a film-within-a-film (so is the
projection of a film or any other act of illusion *also* a manifestation
of God?), and the entire scene has been papered over with computerized
animation (so the film *isn't* capturing a manifestation of God -- not in
the sense that the original theorist intended the concept, at any rate).
I actually like the multi-layered irony of that scene, but there weren't
enough moments like that in the film for me. Ah well.
--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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