From: ellerman@NORFOLK.NADN.NAVY.MIL (Ens Alexander W Ellermann)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cinema-l
Subject: Greenaway, Chaplin, lost weekends, & Con Men
Date: 15 Dec 92 14:34:22 GMT
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>
> To exhaust my comments on CTWL for the present, you might be interested in
> an interview that was conducted with Greenaway and appeared a couple of
issues
> ago (I think the one before the present one) in Film Quarterly.  I read it
but
> can't remember a blessed relevant thing from it; hope you have access to the
> publication.  I'm looking forward to seeing Prospero's Books and will
probably
> re-read it then.

        Oddly enough, I read that interview, too.  Oddly enough, I can't remem-
ber a blessed relevant thing from it, either.  I do know that when I was in LA
last Christmas, I really had only two things I wanted to do:  see Prospero's
Books & go to the Hotel La Fonda near Rosarito Beach.  As for the former, I
decided to wait until I got back to Annapolis, where it wasn't showing any-
where.  Come to think of it, I never got around to the latter, either!  Ah,
well, there's always springtime.   Has anyone seen Prospero's Books on the
small screen?  Is it worthwhile?

>
> It's interesting to read where you're coming from on Chaplin, L&H, and Keaton
> especially in that your intro to Chaplin differed so much.  What I really
tried
> to imply in my comments is an observation I can make now, since, as usual, I
> thought of it after the fact of my posting: I feel guilty about my response
to
> Chaplin overall--i.e., avoiding him at present and claiming that to be based
> on a critical judgment--because I distrust the impurity of my motives/percep-
> tions.  So I mean to give him another shot. L&H were always underdogs, so I
> had no trouble building my childhood affection into a cause celebre over
time.
> And Keaton is obviously cinematically inventive in a way Chaplin is not
often.
> Coupled to that, there's his deadpan confrontation of event and fate--his
> Weltaanschaung (sp?) if you will--that hits home with my stoic and perverse
> soul.
>
> Jeff C.
===========================================================
        Funny, I never much liked L&H, even as a kid.  I always felt sorry for
Stan (the thin one?).  Ollie picked on him all the time.  What a pathetic re-
lationship!  Hey, I know it's all in fun, but it's the same reason I never
liked the three stooges (although I'm willing to give L&H another chance if
you'd recommend a movie - not the piano moving one).  I s'pose I prefer kinder,
gentler comedy.
        I agree, based on the one Keaton movie (not counting Sunset Boulevard)
I've seen, that he takes more chances with his cameras than does Chaplin.
Did I just get a bum steer with The General?  Any recommendations?  From my
limited experience w/the genre, I can't make a decent critical evaluation of
either of them.  I can only say that one makes me laugh out loud & one doesn't.
        By the way, has anyone seen The Distinguished Gentleman?  I hear it's
funny, but the poster isn't attractive.  "From con man to congressman" doesn't
seem like much of a leap to me.
                                        Cordially,
                                                Alex

PS That last smart remark does _not_ reflect the opinion of USNA, DoN, DoD, or
   anyone else who could make my life unpleasant!
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