That's a pretty long article from a "cultural critic" to say you don't understand Curtis's film essays. Guest appearances from friends Tiffany Sia and UC lecturer in Poetry, Jasper Bernes, aren't helpful, and citing Andrea Tone and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick as academic sources are strained. His befuddlement is clear here, " Curtis lays his archival bits end-to-end: concatenation. But placing things in a row produces a montage, something that is neither an “essay,” a thing he has claimed to be presenting, nor an analysis." It clear that he doesn't understand the intellectual montage of the Soviet tradition of Eisenstein or Vertov, or that a so-called journalist doesn't need to "stick to the facts" or that a filmmaker's words isn't the be all and end all of interpreting a film. Just because I don't understand all of *A Grin Without a Cat* (Marker, 1977) doesn't mean the film sucks. Seeing himself, the viewer as "a kind of flustered traffic cop, constantly yelling, “Wait!” is quite revealing as he tries to police what a leftist is and should should not be included in an essay.
Maybe it's because Curtis has won a BAFTA and Alexander Roger Wallace Jones AKA Sasha Frere-Jones has done nothing but toodle around the Art scenes in NYC that he writes nothing more than a windup? Or more likely it's the only way a two bit "critic" can get a look is by having a go at someone beyond them, bringing them down to raise yourself up. And while he does actually talk a bit about what you see on the screen like most cultural critics, this is about him, hence the continually centering himself in his "essay" like this, " Although Curtis and I both like popular music and empty hallways, my relationship to his work can fairly be described as an aversion. (I had a brief e-mail exchange with him in 2013, and he was both professional and polite. I have no aversion to Curtis the person.)" Yet in trying to locate Curtis as a Leftist, he throws out this little nugget to stain filmmaker, "Other nonbelievers have described his work as "incoherent and "neoconservative," which are words I would not use." Wow, thanks for not using them! In the end it's embarrassing really to see someone write about what they don't know about (film essays) and try to work hard to show that they understand it by slagging off someone far more accomplished. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8486): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8486 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82719565/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
