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February 22, 2004
TT: Lights, camera, action, action
Janet Maslin holds forth in today's New York Times about events likely--or not--to follow the opening of The Passion of the Christ:In Bernardo Bertolucci's new film, "The Dreamers," three nubile cinéastes play film-mimicking games. In an extremely Parisian equivalent to collecting baseball cards, they act out favorite film scenes and then impose sexual penalties on one another if the identity of the scene cannot be guessed. Thus the heroine is seen flouncing around her apartment à la Garbo in "Queen Christina," and pretending to be in the "Blonde Venus" tropical conga line.
Most of us react less literally to what we see on screen. We process and absorb it, sometimes even echo it. What more? How often is there a direct cause-and-effect link between events on screen and behavior in the real world? Movies spawn fads and fashions, but can they change real attitudes and catalyze real action? Starting Wednesday, Mel Gibson's graphic re-enactment of the Crucifixion may offer answers to some of these questions....
Read the whole thing here, including some off-the-cuff remarks from yours truly. Maslin tracked me down last week in Smalltown, U.S.A., where just about everybody I ran into wanted to know whether I'd seen a preview of The Passion of the Christ. I hadn't, and haven't, but I still tried to talk as much sense as I could. (I even managed to quote W.H. Auden and work in a plug for artsjournal.com, no small trick when your whole family is pestering you to get off the phone and come to supper.) The verdict is yours.
Posted February 22, 2004 1:51 AM
