Open issues in september

The New Criticism - Richards, Empson and then Wellek&Warren taught us that the historical context means next to nothing, when you have a literary work in front of your nose. Obviously the same would be true on cinematographic works.

Indeed. Almost everything in history almost did not happen.

In spite of The New Criticism I always think of movies according to auteurs. Of course, if there is something really interesting like Sylvester Stallone in his young days or Archie Schwartzenegger, that is something else. And of course the name of the director of some marvellous Laurel&Hardy two-reeler might be a very trifling issue, because the guys had a factory running in Culver City L.A. and churned films using a good recipe.

I relented on Woody Allen after "Sweet and Lowdown". I really liked it. It was good and funny, something like his early masterpiece "Zelig".

I do not like Allen's fad of Bergman and Fellini, because I like Bergman and Fellini as they are.

Yesterday evening I happened to watch "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" in television. Being so fond of Attenborough / BBC I thought there might be some new insights on our invertebrate soul-mates.

Well, it turned out to be a remake of the screwball-comedies of the late 30ies and whodunits from 40ies and once again I felt like the artist moving around in the cinema and spoiling the picture by letting his shadow fall on the silver screen.

And it was like in the famous short story of Veijo Meri - a failure because it was too good. Everything, just everything was meticulously correct so that the finished work was as uninteresting as a flawless gem or perfect pearl.

The should be something baroque in art. Incidentally "barroco" means an imperfect pearl and a wart in early Spanis and Portuguese.

If there are no flaws and no badly finished seams, you cannot see, how the thing is made.

The hero of the Veijo Meri story was a sharpshooter - a Russian one. They were good. Because of his high professional ethics he only shot his targets betweens the eyes - actually between the brows. So it happened, and this word is true, that once on the front on Carelian Isthmus the bullet paased exactly between the two major lobes of brain without doing serious damage. The intended victim saw the flash of the sharpshooter despite the meticulous camouflage, and a barrage of machine-gun topped with some grenades of mortars made it.

Said the Finns: there was a too good shooter. Missed the guy shooting through his head.

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Some British friends have expressed their impotent rage caused by our native language. This means you, Kitchin J.