tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post5036667660737509890..comments2024-01-21T11:18:54.087-05:00Comments on Lost in the Movies: This is Not a Film & Venom and EternityJoel Bockohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-84805035551907915912012-06-08T11:42:07.776-04:002012-06-08T11:42:07.776-04:00Nice piece. I don't know the Isou at all, but ...Nice piece. I don't know the Isou at all, but I thought This Is Not a Film was actually really great at dodging a lot of the traps you mention. It operates on a very narrow line between documentary and narrative -- when Panahi expresses his frustrations about telling a film rather than shooting it, you really feel it, as a documentary moment. But his creative energy is also imposing and infectious. The thoughtful way that the idea of film/not film is batted around was itself fascinating and often convincing. A remarkable picture I thought and you really nail down a lot of its issues nicely here.Jeff Pikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17148737647138431543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-20074048088763484022012-06-07T23:45:50.010-04:002012-06-07T23:45:50.010-04:00Key phrase - plenty of technology and venues, not ...Key phrase - plenty of technology and venues, not YET plenty of examples of how to use said tech and venues. I suspect the other shoe will drop soon, a prospect that makes me both excited and nervous. As an aspiring filmmaker I dob't want to miss the moment. It will only come once. I hear you on the risks of meta movies -Adaptation is a brilliant but frustrating example of where such tendencies can lead- but I think the very real stakes of Panahi's situation (and the fact that the movie isn't JUST about the movie he wants to make) give the film a stature and clarity it might lack otherwise.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-35434360697613645442012-06-07T11:27:43.099-04:002012-06-07T11:27:43.099-04:00You didn't disappoint. I was reading along--n...You didn't disappoint. I was reading along--not having seen <i>This Is Not a Film</i> but a little wary of it: Many years ago (32 of them, ferchrissake) a creative writing prof in grad school laid out his caveats. The one I still carry with me--since young poets do this so often, and it stung a bit--is "never write a poem about writing a poem." Now, this is not the same as a poem that comments on form, that plays with theme and tenor or re-imagines conventions. I'm talking about a poem that eats its own tail to survive. I'll need to see Panahi's work to see if it actually is a film; but once you got to Isou's film, my Spidey-sense started tingling. Were we going to fall into postmodern indulgence?<br /><br />But, as I started saying, you didn't disappoint: You recognized "the mixed legacy of a certain branch of modern twentieth-century art, a destructive impulse which ... could lead ultimately to aesthetic dead ends, ... in the process shutting off a vital venue of liberation and contemplation that had been incorrectly tied to the very system it challenged. Which is another way of saying that self-consciousness can be a trap as well as an escape hatch." Durn tootin'.<br /><br />I also liked the notion that Isou had much more than Panahi could hope for; I'm as guilty as anyone of such "whining," and I'm grateful to be reminded of how easy it is to scorn something you already have gained. I'm looking forward to <i>This Is Not a Film</i>--and keeping my fingers crossed that in these days of cinematic plenty--plenty of technology and venues, that is--we get a cinematic future we actually want to live in.Paul J. Marasahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367608635996012511noreply@blogger.com