Sinister: Ian C. is cool!

[McQuain, Chris]

Ian smartly wrote:

>>(chris, about your quote about hartley being overbearing: 
i semi-agree (could he possibly be more overbearing than 
woody allen?), but isn't this sort of clunky posturing 
somehow more interesting than the sort of glossy fluffing 
that goes on in all manner of 'mainstream' films? 
*cf _pretty woman_, an admittedly overused example<<<<

I think both Hartley and Allen are far, far superior to anything mainstream.
However, Hartley is a fledgling while Allen has proven himself to be, in my
opinion, one of the greatest film-makers America has. I would put his
Husbands and Wives as well as Todd Haynes' Safe ahead of Scorcese's
GoodFellas in the best American films of the decade. As far as the humor
goes, Hartley is more overbearing than Woody Allen because he makes his
actors pause too much at the 'punchlines' or the supposedly funny bits, the
timing is all off and out of proportion. I personally think the humor is
fairly throwaway in both of these directors' films, but Allen's fits much
more easily into his overall serious themes than Hartley's does. Allen is
much more casual with his humor and it blends easily, if you don't happen to
find it funny it doesn't diminish the film so much, but Hartley's sticks out
like a sore thumb and I don't think it's halfway funny enough to deserve so
much space in his films; he ends up trivializing himself, while to me
Allen's films, at least since Annie Hall, have always had resonance whether
they're 'comedy' or 'drama' or both. 

However, that being said, I haven't seen even half of Hartley's films and my
interest is picqued enough by what I've found worthwhile in the ones I have
seen to make me want to see more. 

Regardless of my minor divergence of taste with him, thanks to Mr. Connelly
for keeping film discourse on the list! Unchallenged opinions are the most
uninteresting sort. 75% of people are bound to find this whole thing far too
pretentious but if I can get one person to watch Husbands & Wives or Safe
then it's all worthwhile...

'One simply can't live without the cinema.'

-Two or Three Things I Know About Chris
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