From: Jim Carlile (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2007 - 22:29:58 PDT
-->"Well, what kind of putz watches La Jettee in ENGLISH?"
The putz who programmed it at UCLA a dozen years ago, I guess.
I was surprised about how self-serious and mawkish the commentary was, and
whether the same was true of the French. I saw it with the Resnais short about
the Bibliotheque National, where the audience actually laughed at the movie--
as if there's something campy about Frenchmen stamping library books. But
nobody laughed at the La Jetee commentary-- they treated it like church. It's a
movie that takes itself very seriously, at least in English....
I'm aware of the Kael quote written in the mid 60's about La Jetee, although
considering her opinion of sci-fi in general, it's not saying a whole lot.
That's why I was surprised years later to hear her at a lecture respond to
some enthusiast's questions about the film with a "well, yes, it's good for what
it is, but I mean, come on" kind of answer. She had obviously changed her
mind a little, what with 70's movies etc. under her belt in the intervening
years.
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.