fieldus

Found this from GK Chesterton after searching for essays on Great Expectations (of which, more to follow).

Nothing is important except the fate of the soul; and literature is only
redeemed from an utter triviality, surpassing that of naughts and crosses,
by the fact that it describes not the world around us, or the things on the
retina of [...]

From David Edelstein in New York Magazine:
There’s something appealingly anti-psychological about Charlie Kaufman. As a Jew who explores the inner lives of anxious neurotic depressive solipsists, he could be expected to build his works around repressed traumas and cathartic revelations: very Freudian, very twentieth century. But Kaufman goes in the opposite direction. The whirlpool doesn’t [...]

Deborah Orr: Motherhood, sex, and a woman’s deepest fears - Deborah Orr, Commentators - The Independent
I value von Trier’s films because they make me think about things that I’d rather not think about, things that are rarely acknowledged, and often those films make me angry or distressed. Breaking The Waves, in which sheltered, simple Bess [...]

Tim Adams on why the films of Richard Curtis are second rate.
The rise and fall of Richard Curtis - director of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and The Boat That Rocked | Film | The Observer
You imagine the films that Curtis would love to make are updates of Frank Capra, comedies that make [...]

The year in review: ‘How should we rate 2008?’ by | Prospect Magazine January 2009 issue 154
Overrated Happy-Go-Lucky by Mike Leigh. This multiple-award winning film left me not just cold, but irritated. The central character Poppy (Sally Hawkins) was insufferably annoying and the whole film was infused with cod psychology. A little Freud is a [...]

‘Disgrace’: A disquieting lens on South African brutality - International Herald Tribune
Coetzee has praised the film, saying, “Steve Jacobs has succeeded beautifully in integrating the story into the grand landscape of South Africa. The leading actors give strong and thoughtful performances.”
External reviews of the Disgrace @ IMDB.COM

Sunday drama? Stop messing about | Review | The Observer
Kenneth Williams: Michael Sheen carries on his camping - People, News - The Independent

A repeat viewing of Robert Bresson’s Dostoievskian tale of inflated anomie coming acropper in post-war Paris. The object relations school would approve of the means of his salvation - a comination of hitting rock bottom and finding someone to love.
I like tales of ego-shrunk salvation: DISGRACE and FALCONER spring to mind.
Despite his reputation, there isn’t [...]