Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * thanks louis. i want to go back and read more of your film criticism and your article, trotsky on revolutionary art (this weekend). here's a provocative gem from this article. Art is not propaganda. It is instead a way for people to connect with deeper humanitarian impulses that lay buried beneath the grime of daily life in a capitalist society growing ever more barbarian by the day. is this meant as a complete definition? for art? film art? narrative art? i like the sentiment but i want to say that it still seems a little restrictive despite broadening a notion of art as pure propaganda. at the danger of appearing ignorant, degenerate or even pedantic i think there are itches i want to scratch that are not overtly humanitarian, or humane even. perhaps human impulses fits better what i want. is this what you meant? - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu To: Charles Faulkner lacena...@comcast.net Sent: Friday, December 26, 2014 11:50:22 AM Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In Search of a Marxist Method for Film Criticism Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa by LOUIS PROYECT A couple of weeks ago an Australian friend and fellow Marxist raised some interesting questions about film: I have just moved to the capital city of the state and attended my first film festival. I have always enjoyed movies but in the past have been living in regional centers. It got me thinking about what constitutes a “good movie” and yourself and David Walsh are the only two Marxist movie critics I can think of. David never seems to like anything very much and his discussion of culture – which is interesting- relies heavily on Trotsky’s ‘Literature and Revolution’. I know you have written in passing about the sort of movies you like but wondered if you’d written more systematic about Marxism movie criticism. Despite having written over nine hundred film reviews in the past twenty years or so, I have never really given much thought to the question of “Marxist movie criticism”. Unfortunately Walsh has stopped writing film reviews for the World Socialist Website, which for my money was the only thing worth reading there. It’s a dirty little secret but most of the material that appears on wsws.org is extracted from the bourgeois press and then spiked with Marxist rhetoric about how evil the capitalist system is, as if we needed any reminding. I’d rather read the NY Times and make such observations myself. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/26/reading-trotsky-while-watching-kurosawa/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/lacenaire%40comcast.net _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 12/27/14 5:02 AM, Charles Faulkner wrote: s this meant as a complete definition? for art? film art? narrative art? i like the sentiment but i want to say that it still seems a little restrictive despite broadening a notion of art as pure propaganda. at the danger of appearing ignorant, degenerate or even pedantic i think there are itches i want to scratch that are not overtly humanitarian, or humane even. perhaps human impulses fits better what i want. Not at all. Most comedy skirts the political. For example, Preston Sturges made the greatest film comedies ever, including Sullivan's Travels that satirized a director's yearnings to make social protest films during the Great Depression. Speaking of which, nothing will ever rival the frothy and apolitical Fred Astaire films of the same period. Laughter and dance elevate just as much as tragedy. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In Search of a Marxist Method for Film Criticism Reading Trotsky While Watching Kurosawa by LOUIS PROYECT A couple of weeks ago an Australian friend and fellow Marxist raised some interesting questions about film: I have just moved to the capital city of the state and attended my first film festival. I have always enjoyed movies but in the past have been living in regional centers. It got me thinking about what constitutes a “good movie” and yourself and David Walsh are the only two Marxist movie critics I can think of. David never seems to like anything very much and his discussion of culture – which is interesting- relies heavily on Trotsky’s ‘Literature and Revolution’. I know you have written in passing about the sort of movies you like but wondered if you’d written more systematic about Marxism movie criticism. Despite having written over nine hundred film reviews in the past twenty years or so, I have never really given much thought to the question of “Marxist movie criticism”. Unfortunately Walsh has stopped writing film reviews for the World Socialist Website, which for my money was the only thing worth reading there. It’s a dirty little secret but most of the material that appears on wsws.org is extracted from the bourgeois press and then spiked with Marxist rhetoric about how evil the capitalist system is, as if we needed any reminding. I’d rather read the NY Times and make such observations myself. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/26/reading-trotsky-while-watching-kurosawa/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
