A Mirror Floating in Water

Hands down you have the better of me in the film category. You definitely have watched more and wider ranged movies then I profess too. For some reason I am very impressed you have seen La Dolce Vita. I quit taking Oscar seriously years ago. It is mostly about Hollywood feeding on itself. One observation if I may--Bonnie and Clyde STILL holds up but In the Heat of the Night has NOT aged well. But it was an important movie in its time and yes I freely admit the racial themes needed addressing. It may not seem this way but there have been tremendous strides in the treatment of blacks in film, society, etc. No real mystery why it got the Oscar with Poitier in his prime and Steiger getting set to hit his zenith--his career seemed to come to a screeching halt--never sure why much past 1970. Bonnie and Clyde--frankly audiences weren't sure what to make of it. Were they SUPPOSED to root for that adorable couple. I was in love with Dunaway for YEARS (Chinatown kept the flames alive) until her diva complex dislillusioned me. Sigh. Anyway just saying. I always learn something from you when you post. Side note--I tried but I CAN'T get thru a Fellini film.

Oh noes! If you wish I can help you out with Fellini: La Dolce Vita probably is not the best choice when starting out with Fellini; it's three hours long, is more moody and less comedic than Fellini's other films, and has a very unconventional despairing narrative structure. Of course I love this and I consider La Dolce Vita along with Antonini's L'Avventura to be the greatest films about modern sociological fragmentation ever made, but they are not for the foriegn film lay-man.

I would instead suggest the great Luis Bunuel, who was also a surrealist, but wasn't so serious. In fact he was almost never serious and covered his films in mocking satire and dream-like narratives. One can just tell when watching a Bunuel film how much fun he is having in manipulating the audience with his clever weirdness.

Fellini too is a great clown (no joke, he loved the circus, and many of his films have circus elements in them) and is a lot of fun. His masterpiece 8 1/2 is a wonder and is probably my second favorite all-time film. It is filled with deep insights into human nature, but also with surreal "ballets" (if so will) of the unconscious. It is a true masterpiece about the existential man. Read my review on it if you want here.

If you've already tried 8 1/2, then I would suggest trying out Bunuel first, I highly reccomend The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie or some of Fellini's earlier neo-realist works, such as Nights of Cabria, a tragic story about a street prostitute in Rome.

Also, concerning Bonnie and Clyde and In the Heat of the Night; I totally agree with you, even though I find In the Heat of the Night to be a great film. Bonnie and Clyde has held up so well over the past years. Hell, it pretty much along with Godard's Breathless changed movies forever. It pretty much brought about the age of neo-classical Hollywood (i.e. the 70's) and changed the way morality, violence and music (or lack of) were done in American films. It has always been amongst my top ten favorite films and is probably (along with Killer of Sheep) the greatest film made about living in America. It posseses a tone that is so poetic and distinctively American.

Anyway, the Oscars have shown improvment over the past couple of years. Notice that my list of outrages stopped at 2004. For example, in 2007 they gave the award to No Country for Old Men, something I couldn't imagine ten years earlier. Also, the next year, the only film that had a big budget and was strictly a Hollywood film was The Curious Case of Benjeman Button (the one I wanted to win ironically ). And then this year with the top three contenders all being independent films; Thr Hurt Locker, Up in the Air and Precious, Oscar has improved. . .... . .but Cannes is still better


Wow, sorry for the long message :S

Well, Daniel, you're the expert, so I'll defer to you.
This year's Oscars apparently are the latest evidence of the "canary in the dummy mine," with the Best Picture nominations burgeoning to 10. Talk about your watering down! My movie-loving long-suffering spouse says that the
show is already 3+ hours long, now it's going to be even longer! The silly production numbers will have to go. Ironically, I watch the Tony awards just for the musical numbers! But I haven't watched the Oscars or any other awards show in years.

By the bye, Daniel, I read on AOL just this morning that the LA film critics have
declared your beloved "Mulholland Drive" the movie of the decade/

Appreciate your bringing me up to speed. I actually had a longer answer for you here but at work and I lost the data due to that pesky thing called work. Your post was fine--ty very much for takign the time.