Nice post. And yes, I love film, and yes, for many of the same reasons you seem to. It's the art form of our time; it has the ability to uplift and transform, and sadly it also has the ability to drive people further into complacency.
The amazing thing to me, having known a lot of people in the film industry, is that any good films get made at all. It's an assembly line of untalented idiots, run by even more untalented committees of middle managers who self-promoted themselves to the position of upper managers. The whole *system* should prohibit any good films being made at all. And yet, good films get made. It's a tribute to the enduring power of the artist, and his or her ability to make lemonade out of sour lemons. Or shinola from a pile of shit. Whatever. Paris is about as international a city as one could hope to find, with its modern population reflecting generations of conquest and colonization. The French, because they realized the futility of trying to "rule" Vietnam a lot earlier than the Americans did, have a huge population of French-Vietnamese citizens, most of whom have now blended into the melange that is the "French" population here. Same with Algerians and Moroccans, and people from Ivory Coast and other former French colonies. Walking down the street in Paris is like a history lesson in the footprints of the French empire. And it's sometimes depressing, when you think of all the things that went down in those colonies, but just as often inspiring, when you see the former oppressors and the formerly oppressed living side by side and just trying to do today what they were trying to do then -- figure things out, and make it to tomorrow. A good film *can* change the world. I just hope there are enough of them to change it quickly enough so that we all get to live side by side in the near future, rather than getting to die side by side in it. Unc --- In [email protected], akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > After some posts tonight on (some real) christian values (IMO) in > the 60's related to Vietnam protests, I happened to view a portion > of "Good Morning Viet-Nam". Though not a great film, it has some > great cinematic moments. Though we may bicker and have some > different points of view. I appreciate your love of films. I have > such too, though I am sure not as extensive and as refined a > sensibility as you have. > > There is a one minute sequence in this film, that is IMO, awesome in > conveying the power of cinema, while devestating to the heart. Back > ground music is Louie Armstrong's great... , or i should say the > great Louie Armstrong's rendition of "Its a Wonderful World". > > With footage of the real ironies and contradictions of Viet-nam: > beautiful landscapes, pastoral villages, sweet people, then with US > soldiers propositioning young girls on the street, indigant protests > being met by brutal repression by vietnamese police (smelling of US > training ), helicopters napalming villages, etc. > > All of which, ironically brings to mind the sweetness I feel for > Viet-nam still today -- even amid the horror of the war and, IMO, US > arrogance -- similar to Iraq today. Perhaps such memories are > influenced by the Vietnamese reastuarant I use to eat at in France > when I lived their in the early 70's. > > The sweetness is for the Buddhist soul of the country, co-mingled > with French and catholic sensibilities -- while imperialist and > nauseating, > still the mixture of a sweet gentle buddhism with french design, > culture and tastes, to me leaves a fragrant feeling for that era and > the country. > > Not so much a question or point to make. More an observation -- > which made me think of you, in Paris, a Buddhist of sorts, and a > fan of cinema. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
