Re: RARA-AVIS: Chandler vs. Altman

From: Robert Elkin ( rictusaporia@yahoo.com)
Date: 12 Nov 2007


Ed Wood wrote nothing but bad books. And in the neighborhood of a hundred or so of them.

----- Original Message ---- From: Channing < filmtroll@sbcglobal.net> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:21:23 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Chandler vs. Altman

  

    
> Losey, Polanski, Bergman, Fassbinder, Coen, Fellini, Roeg, Huston,

Welles,

> Weir

> -- all of them have tremendous

> artistic distinction, all control their projects to a very large

> extent (certain exceptions of studio interference easily noted), and

> I would therefore advance the thesis that none of them ever made

> a "bad" film. We need everything they did.

That's a pretty good theory you got there. If only Uwe Boll

and Ed Wood had an indisputable theory that "proved" that

they never made a bad film... Sorry, just kidding.

I'm afraid we're at the turning point of an "auteur theory" discussion

that will only end in stalemate. There's no denying those are truly

great filmmakers, but there is no way any artist's work is above

criticism, especially in a pop-culture medium. To dismiss weak films

doesn't diminish the value of the great ones. What if the director

was having an off-day? What if the budget didn't allow for the

author's true vision? What if the actor was drunk and gave a lousy

performance? There are too many variables that go into filmmaking.

In a medium like film that requires hundreds of people working

together, it's difficult to declare the whole project the work of one

single man (there are no women on your best director's list.) That's

dismissing the creative input of other contributors; cinematographers,

screenwriters, editors, composers, producers... etc.

To bring this back to crime literature, it's much easier to declare

the entire body of work as belonging to a singular vision in writing.

 In that case, Ed Wood never wrote a bad book, either.

----------

--Chan

    
  

    
    

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