Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

Lew Crippen · 03-22-2004, 02:37 PM

There is much in what you say Dome, but I would suggest that you would be hard pressed to come up with very many movies that are both great and simple.

Now you may not like the complexity of movies such as L’Avventura and perhaps some (not necessarily you) might claim that Star Wars is only a simple movie.

But for me at least, most (perhaps all) great films are also complex. True the complexity may appear to just a simple story, but I would suggest that such simple films as Snow White, Star Wars, Singin’ in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz are far more complex that the simple stories they tell on the surface.

There are plenty (well some) of European films on the S&S list that I find not very good even though they have solid intellectual and critical support. Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet is one such example. But I would hesitate to use the word pretentious in explaining why I don’t care for the movie (I actually may have done so, but if so, it was an error in judgment). Cocteau was no mere intellectual pretender, but a significant artist during a period that saw many establishment art from under attach by young, anti-establishment artists, many of whom were most certainly pretenders. But not all, and by now the genius of a man who could create a Beauty and the Beast is hard to question.

This does not mean that he (or anyone) always got it right or should be above criticism (my problem with Blood of a Poet is that I don’t think it is a very well-made movie and that Cocteau’s intent is not well presented).. It is just that pretentious is an easy word to use, when not liking certain types of films. I just don’t think that it necessarily applicable to Antonnioni or much of the French New Wave.

Jim, for example is not alone in his dislike of Jules and Jim, a film that at least one famous critic confessed to not liking (and for some of the same reasons as Jim).

But I ramble. In short, (1) although there are plenty of pretentious movies made, I don’t think that are too many on this list and (2) I don’t think that there are many great films that are also simple.

03-22-2004, 02:37 PM	#1594 of 3711
Lew Crippen Member Location: Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexíco Join Date: May 2002 Local Time: 07:24 AM Local Date: 08-29-2008 Posts: 11,393	There is much in what you say Dome, but I would suggest that you would be hard pressed to come up with very many movies that are both great and simple. Now you may not like the complexity of movies such as L’Avventura and perhaps some (not necessarily you) might claim that Star Wars is only a simple movie. But for me at least, most (perhaps all) great films are also complex. True the complexity may appear to just a simple story, but I would suggest that such simple films as Snow White, Star Wars, Singin’ in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz are far more complex that the simple stories they tell on the surface. There are plenty (well some) of European films on the S&S list that I find not very good even though they have solid intellectual and critical support. Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet is one such example. But I would hesitate to use the word pretentious in explaining why I don’t care for the movie (I actually may have done so, but if so, it was an error in judgment). Cocteau was no mere intellectual pretender, but a significant artist during a period that saw many establishment art from under attach by young, anti-establishment artists, many of whom were most certainly pretenders. But not all, and by now the genius of a man who could create a Beauty and the Beast is hard to question. This does not mean that he (or anyone) always got it right or should be above criticism (my problem with Blood of a Poet is that I don’t think it is a very well-made movie and that Cocteau’s intent is not well presented).. It is just that pretentious is an easy word to use, when not liking certain types of films. I just don’t think that it necessarily applicable to Antonnioni or much of the French New Wave. Jim, for example is not alone in his dislike of Jules and Jim, a film that at least one famous critic confessed to not liking (and for some of the same reasons as Jim). But I ramble. In short, (1) although there are plenty of pretentious movies made, I don’t think that are too many on this list and (2) I don’t think that there are many great films that are also simple. ¡Time is not my master!