Tuesday, July 25, 2006

An Appreciation of Whit Stillman's Metropolitain

As with the play in Mansfield Park, it can be assumed that most people today (the confessional and narcissistic culture has grown still worse) would fail to be moved by Audrey's defense of conventions that guard intimacy. Their concept of privacy is reduced to personal license; as Von Sloneker says, "I can do whatever I want here." In the modern age, we are to respect the privacy of others not by refusing to gaze into their lives (now practically impossible) but by refusing to care about what we see.
Udolpho.com


Also notable from Udolpho, a takedown of Kevin Smith, "Peter Pan in Short Pants":

I always maintained that another movie about religion wouldn't be forthcoming, as "Dogma" was the product of 28 years of religious and spiritual meditation


Is that what it's called? Meditation? I thought it was just a pot-induced stupor. The message of Dogma, for those lucky enough to dodge that bullet, boiled down to the highly enlightened philosophy of "be a good person", helpful advice for Kevin Smith's childlike fans but tending to leave unexamined all moral reflection that cannot be demonstrated using King Friday and Lady Elaine Fairchilde hand puppets. Par for the course.


Whenever one feels like hanging on to what's left of one's adolescence, re-reading this scathing attack should revivify the spirit of anti-slackerdom

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