Wallowing in Grimness: the NYT on film festivals

[lola]

A.O.Scott had an interesting commentary on the relentlessly grim selection at the NY Film Festival and festivals in general:

www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/movies/07festival.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=new%20york%20film%20festival%20october%202009%20almodovar&st=cse

I tend to be middlebrow, occasionally browing higher or lower, and do wonder why artistic filmgoing should have to hurt so much. Per Scott:
"Ideally and at its best, the kind of high-minded middlebrowism represented by the New York Film Festival could provide a bridge for curious patrons, a path from the familiar and the fun toward the rarefied and the difficult, as well as a yearly sampling of world cinema in all its protean abundance."

This is what I would look for in a festival, and like to be challenged some without necessarily wanting to head for the nearest bridge to leap from when I leave the theater.

[fumobici]

Hint: Once you've decided you've sufficiently developed a social conscience you are no longer required to attend and be lectured at by dark, depressing documentary films on starving babies in Sub-saharan Africa, the horrific stories of mass graves in Central America, teenage junkies dying of AIDS in Luton, the deforestation of the Amazon and attendent slavery of indigenous peoples by multinationals or stories of despair, humiliation, sadistic relationships or man's inhumanity to man.

I reached that point at around 20 years old and have never looked back. Of course I don't find "happy" or "uplifting" films very palatable either. It all just feels like cheap emotional manipulation to me.

[lola]

You'd hope a film festival would have some sort of festivity about it somewhere. Or at least offer a range of the best out there.

My mother in law once said she didn't like watching sad movies or plays, and I thought it was shallow of her at the time. Now I often feel the same way. The ancient Greeks only watched their tragedies yearly, after all.

[bixaorellana]

One of my favorite quotes is by Larry McMurtry, explaining why he felt he could absent himself from "art" movies. He said he reached the decision while watching L'Avventura: "I felt leaves falling inside myself."

[lola]

I love it.

[Deleted]

Wonderful quote. So poignant.

[bixaorellana]

;D
Somehow, having endured L'Avventura, I doubt McMurtry was going for poignant.

[lola]

I wonder how widely known that quote is. I'd like to swipe it and apply to certain films, pass it off as my own. Or maybe modify to order:
"I felt black mold beginning to form on the cellar walls of my heart." "Tiny shoots of kudzu twined around my central nervous system the longer I watched." "An alpine avalanche began to tumble from my cerebellum, piling in my thoracic cavity, and completely blanketed the aortic arch."

[bixaorellana]

You're a hoot, Lola! ;D

As far as I can remember, I read that in a magazine article, years and years ago. I think you've bested Mr. McM!

[lola]

Thanks, bixa. Funny how some quotes stick and others not.

Actually, "Black Mold is Spreading Through the Cellar of My Heart" would make a good C&W title, too.

[bixaorellana]

...... and the water keeps a-risin' past the broken sump pump of my mind

[lola]

Oooh yeah baby.