Synecdoche, New York
- Thread starter Idaho
- Start date
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I get to briefly feel smug for knowing what synecdoche means.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
i saw it and found it fascinating and hilarious and confusing
liampreston
Spend time, not money
Just listening to Mark Kermode now. And he's being a bit negative about it....
The Groke
hot hail/Paging Dr. Beat
Me too.
Not sure it matters how well intended a movie is if it ends up will-sappingly dull.
I think I will be avoiding it!
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
i didn't find it dull at all - i love how it disappears up its own arse
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
There's nothing self indulgent or tedious about dealing with parent/child separation surely ? The themes of age and dislocation seem vital in 2009. It's a multitude of things and a difficult first viewing. Perhaps it drags a bit at the end but overall it's enormously impressive if fairly hard to persevere with, it's pretty depressing.
It makes 'Sunshine of the spotless mind' an irrelevance in comparison.
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
I'd have to disagree - it does matter whether people try things. If the result is not altogether positive, it still matters that they tried.
I didn't find it dull at all - dense and somewhat hard to follow at times, but not dull.
e2a: saying all that, I can see how if you don't go along with it it could be all the things described above (tedious, self-indulgent, etc).
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
it's not particularly highbrow material
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
same with 'pretentious' - sure there's loads of pretentious wanky films about but i've heard so many films described as pretentious that plainly aren't
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
We all dream, nowt pretentious about that, which is what much of the film alludes to. Our anxieties laid out in dreams. It would never have been made in Britain obviously.
Balbi
Hey, Dean Yager!
that's not a british thing, we just limit it to stuff like films and that
Anti intellectualism is an artform in some less well developed nations.
The Groke
hot hail/Paging Dr. Beat
Wouldn't have said that is a particularly English (or British trait)!
It is just down to individuals and how they perceive art that they think they are or are not interested in, and the reasons for it.
I reckon you are just as likely to hear someone dismiss a film as "too lowbrow" in concept/content.
Boils down to people marking out their "taste territory" and reassuring themselves of it's validity by dismissing things that appear to fall outside of their comfort zone.
I am probably as guilty of this as the next person, though I would be unlikely to use either of the above qualifiers personally...
**********
Did you see the movie in the end?
Thoughts?
i heard someone describe The Thin Red Line as pretentious. Well if a long and serious meditation on war, nature and mortality can't be "pretentious", what the fuck can?
Ok - so I am wrong that it got boring, and I am wrong that I found it boring. And I am wrong that I don't want to watch boring films. As long as we are straight on that
no, you're allowed to find it boring
Idaho
continuity character
It's about whether a film is going to be entertaining or require you to think. Sometimes films can do both. Sometimes, like with Speilberg, they give the illusion of making you think, but really only just make you feel.
The experience of going to see Synecdoche and Wolverine are going to engage with different moods, parts of your mind and require different amounts of mental commitment. High brow and low brow are really just short hand to describe the amount of effort and sometimes the amount of pre-reading and calibration to the cultural form you need.
Biglittlefish
Active Member
Wolverine and Synecdouche are now top of my list of most boring films I've seen at the cinema.
hmmm, I fell asleep during Wolverine. This does not bode well.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
it wasn't boring. it was fascinating. how was it boring? so much happens in itOk - so I am wrong that it got boring, and I am wrong that I found it boring. And I am wrong that I don't want to watch boring films. As long as we are straight on that
Idaho
continuity character
Pretty much nothing happens in it. It makes a clever point by twisting together the whole "map is not the territory" along with "life immitating art" combined with a few other well know aphorisms. But after an hour or so you know that it's only going to carry on in the same vein.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Loads happens in it! It spans years!
Similar threads
