The feeble grasp of Marxism (in the 1920s for God's sake!) >is bad enough, never mind the saccharine "love conquers all" resolution. Oh >dear.
Naaah - you're ommitting a vital fact Jonny! This is 1930s America, happy endings and easily-comprehensible plots were virtually compulsory. Think studio system and remember political interfence/patronage (....hmmm... that sounds very contemporary, 'Black Hawk Down' anyone?) Also, do you remember Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life"? Remember the part when he tries out being dead and suddenly, in an ostensibly quite treakly, not to say twee film, we get 5 minutes of [EMAIL PROTECTED] near actualite: Gangsters, prohibition, McCarthyism, prostitution and hints of more international warefare ... then it all goes back to normal. Phew! Jimmy Stewart decides against it and all's well that ends well ... But, for me, the juxtuposition jarred so much that I wasn't really convinced that the ending depicted what Capra was essentially trying to say. I got a similar feeling in seeing Metropolis - both visually and thematically. Anyway, this all remains mho and of course you were entitled to despise it. Best, Ken >-----Original Message----- >From: Jonny McIntosh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 12:19 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Org >Subject: Re: [313] Metropolis @ Royal Festival Hall > > >And mine too: > >> My tuppeny worth > >I thought the film was almost awful. I'm glad they cut it down. God only >knows why such a lumbering primary school plot originally required over two >and half hours. The feeble grasp of Marxism (in the 1920s for God's sake!) >is bad enough, never mind the saccharine "love conquers all" resolution. Oh >dear. Visually, though, "Metropolis" entirely deserves it's reputation. The >robot replica was pretty techno. Mills' music is ace, but I don't think it >fitted all that well, though it worked best when it was more storming: >"Robot Replica" and the destroy the machines scene. There were a lot of >moments where I thought the music was ill timed - though it was cool to >watch a film with the soundtrack as the object of interest, and I think I >appreciate much more how much effort has to go into scores to be >successful. >Scoring for a silent movie and striking the balance between subtlety and >expressing when there's no dialogue is probably even harder. I think Mills' >Metropolis comes down more on the, err, "Scarface" side of that balance :) > >>From where I was sat in cheap seats, the mosh pit that developed during the >DJ set was pretty entertaining, though some charted accountant behind me >started dancing as if he'd been restraining himself all evening at this >point and whipped out one of those little light gadgets. > >Matt Herbert put on a great show. Though I still liked the idea of >it better >than the sound. I got one of those free cds which I've not listened to yet, >but I might do as requested and pass it on :) Super Collider, by contrast, >seemed pretty inept. I really liked the LP, but this show, IMO, was like >sitting through bad performance art set to turgid trip hop (with a weak >drummer to boot). > >Oh, and it was a tremendous view from the balcony out behind the stalls. > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
