(Blue Cross Arena, 25 September 2009)
At a Starbucks, it is hard enough to place an order just when the barista is listening and to recall one's name and the drink's name and ingredients in the right order. In comparison, on an aerial high bar, group performance is near to impossible, requires uncommon intelligence and skill. The skill looks like a product of desperation, not aspiration to beauty---perfection in the mundane. The impression is reinforced by the scenes in which athletes are forced to perform by their ugly masters, unnecessarily introduced to set off the athletes' perfect bodies.
Alegria lacks the class of Moulin Rouge, another celebration of physique. Alegria's goal, however, is not to honour class. Class embodies civilization and hence requires an object for imitation, whose availability is a matter of chance. Instead, Alegria honours hard work, which is universally available.
25 September 2009
20 September 2009
The Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Tango, jazz, and Hollywood musicals have emerged to distract the working class from its daily suffering. By late 1950s, the suffering had receded; the better-off working class had matured for instruction; the Production Code had begun to fade. "The Anatomy of a Murder" is a glimpse into the cinema that was to follow, with compromised ideals and inconclusive endings.
Whenever censorship is imposed on art, someone in the audience gains from the ingenuity of the artist outwitting the censor. Others suffer from having missed the innuendo, or the artwork of the artists who are bad at innuendos. The "speaking-of-horses" dialogue in the "Big Sleep" (1946) hardly could have been improved if the Code had been absent. With the code, sometimes even a villain had to speak like a gentleman, which amplified his evil.
Once the Code retreated, poetry retired---for a while. One could go to more places, but would meet fewer people. Films clustered into ratings with the advent of the rating system, as homes clustered into suburban communities with the advent of the motorcar. The dream disintegrated as did American cities---inexplicably, unintentionally, temporarily. "The Anatomy a Murder" is explicit in its treatment of a certain undergarment of a lady, but is delicate at hinting the cultural changes of the forthcoming decades.
Whenever censorship is imposed on art, someone in the audience gains from the ingenuity of the artist outwitting the censor. Others suffer from having missed the innuendo, or the artwork of the artists who are bad at innuendos. The "speaking-of-horses" dialogue in the "Big Sleep" (1946) hardly could have been improved if the Code had been absent. With the code, sometimes even a villain had to speak like a gentleman, which amplified his evil.
Once the Code retreated, poetry retired---for a while. One could go to more places, but would meet fewer people. Films clustered into ratings with the advent of the rating system, as homes clustered into suburban communities with the advent of the motorcar. The dream disintegrated as did American cities---inexplicably, unintentionally, temporarily. "The Anatomy a Murder" is explicit in its treatment of a certain undergarment of a lady, but is delicate at hinting the cultural changes of the forthcoming decades.
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