On Mon, 10 Jun 2013, Sumant Srivathsan wrote: > > Obviously, "Folk Oskar" has nothing to do with "movie Oscar". I [...] > > As a side note, it needs to be mentioned - one's strength can be > > easily recognized by strength of one's enemies. I have long considered > > US-made films harder and harder to watch (with some notable exceptions). > > Now, here is even better, less subjective proof that US film industry is > > sinking. > > > Much anger I sense in this one.
That's correct, I was angry. For a short while. I rarely get angry and it doesn't last too long. This time it was about mangling something that wasn't doing any or much harm, quite the opposite (I believe), because of some formal reasons. I can conform to formulas but I'd rather not do so at a cost of spoiling the bigger picture. In this case, the letter of law might have been obeyed, but at a cost of me thinking that once again law had been abused for immoral gain. Certainly, not the first time and not the last one, but ubiquity doesn't make it more acceptable. > That puts you one step closer to the dark side, to use one of the more > popular references borrowed from the US film industry. The dark side isn't all that bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZlih4DDNg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1ubBR4jJw0 But a bit more seriously, if you want to fend off the dark side, you've got to get close to it because by it's very nature it won't go away by itself. The beauty of the trick is in fact that many people will not go back after the job is done... rather, they will make a new dark. > The Oscar is a trademark applicable to the entertainment business, so I > can see how the Academy can be bothered by the existence of an almost > identical mark in the same industry. If you must rail against anything, Ok, I can agree. But while industry is the same, it's very different areas of it, to the point when people following one part of it don't really look at the other part. There is simply no connection between "hollywood" and some older folks sitting in a village, sculpting Pensive Christ / Christ in Distress from piece of wood. Even if such connection could be proved (6 degrees of separation etc), this doesn't make the whole suing thing more moral to me. > I'd recommend the legal protection of intellectual property. There is > much else to be angry about when it comes to American cinema, even if I O yes, definitely. One thing I dislike about US movies is their cavaliere attitude towards historical facts (as I know them, at least). I am just a history buff, mostly concentrating on WW2, and while I know almost nothing, I don't think I appreciate industry's story telling efforts regarding this period, but I also happen to spot some nastities related to other historical periods. When I do, it feels a bit like there was huge "f* you" printed somewhere across the decoration, and it's not nice to see. However, a lot of sins is shared among movie makers as a whole, and I guess US makers are not much worse than average. > wouldn't agree that this is any form of proof for the deterioration of > the US film industry. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this > conclusion is totally non sequitur. But it is very much "sequitur" for me :-). Kind of personal feeling. It has something to do with growing. I was avid film watcher but as I, say, grew a little, the films didn't follow. Nowadays, there are very few films I would like to see more than once. "Blade runner" is one of them, and "2001: A Space Odyssey" is another. I can also watch Kubrick, Kurosawa, Tarantino, Wajda, Chaplin and Szulkin without getting tired (but not 24/7, of course, more like 1/10). Those names come from the top of my head, there are some others whom I could dig out (Pasolini? Bergman?) but the thing is, there is not so many films worth watching, really. It also has something to do with honesty. I can watch those guys above, but I would have to think really hard before I could tell if their films were honest. Perhaps Kurosawa and Chaplin, not sure really, maybe all of them, maybe nobody. The question of honesty only occured to me during last few minutes so it isn't even too well defined. I am sure film industry is getting fatter and more lazy. But I don't think it grows up. The growth in width doesn't count to me. And I can happily live without watching any of recent Oscar winners - the trend is written on the wall, for me at least, so I can risk missing one or two valuable creations in every decade of throw-aways. Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] **
