Quote: chipolata @ September 17 2009, 2:22 PM BSTDon't be too harsh on yourself, you big f**k off thick c**t.
Trust you to open yer big gob trap. Tchaaa!
Reading Kafka improves learning Page 2
His next film, with Werner Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, sounds quite interesting.
Quote: chipolata @ September 17 2009, 2:36 PM BSTHis next film, with Werner Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, sounds quite interesting.
Hopefully there'll be some kind of cogent storyline.
Quote: zooo @ September 17 2009, 2:07 PM BSTShe was dying innit, the whole film was her final thoughts as she died, only took her a few seconds, but took us two whoooole hours.
That's the easy explanation, dear, far too simple for my tastes. Not metaphysical enough. I think it was far more to do with the sense of fate and paranoia lurking within Hollywood, coupled with the idea of reinvention of the facts to make a good story, with a suggestion that reality is the ultimate drug etc. Plus it was paying homage to various movie genres (hence the character of the cowboy). Oh I could go on... 
Quote: john lucas 101 @ September 17 2009, 2:42 PM BSTHopefully there'll be some kind of cogent storyline.
"Cogent". Nice word, John. 
Professor John Carey dismissed Mulholland Drive on Newsnight Review a few years back, as complete nonsense. I've never had much respect for him, but It doesn't speak well for him that he couldn't see some dialectic in the film.
It's a masterpiece and that makes perfect sense. One of the few examples of total film out there. People who don't get it probably think there is a band- but there is no band.
I always enjoy these types of movies but always end up hating them in the end when its obvious the writer had no intentions of ending their films.
To be honest I do usually hate it when writers (of books or films) get asked what their endings mean, and they say 'you have to decide for yourself'. Well f**k that, you're the writer, you lazy bastard, write a flipping ending. Or at least have a specific ending YOU believe in, even if for some reason you didn't want to put it in the narrative itself.
In academic criticism nowadays it's only considered tangentially relevant what the author thinks of their work, and it's considered a given that the author may not actually know what it's about
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 17 2009, 6:13 PM BSTIn academic criticism nowadays it's only considered tangentially relevant what the author thinks of their work, and it's considered a given that the author may not actually know what it's about
That's fine and dandy but here is my problem with authors who don't have endings that use those types of excuses:
Can you give any examples of these books and films that 'didn't finish you off', Curt? I'm sympathetic, by the way.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 17 2009, 6:25 PM BSTCan you give any examples of these books and films that 'didn't finish you off', Curt? I'm sympathetic, by the way.
Everyone keeps mentioning Mulholland Dr. I think that's a pretty good example. There is no resolution to the story only more questions to bring it back to a rising action and creating false climaxes. It's all over the board. I love his dialogue and ideas throughout the film but the fact that it only intensifies the story with the tiny old people.
I think it's only our expectations that demand resolution as an ending. In comedy, Python did away with the punchline, and while it was uncomfortable at first, we got used to it. Sure, there was no resolution, but they demonstrated that it's over-rated; their sketches 'resolved' themselves all the way through.
The only films that should have false climaxes usually involve naked people and the words 'Did I fix your plumbing good baby?'.
It's easy to pick on 'No Country For Old Men' or the last episode of the Sopranos, but I find tacked on endings even more irratating - especially if they involve a deux et machina, waking from a dream or some unbelievable coincidence.
But I suppose it's down to subjective choice on how you want your entertainment presented to you, as this conversation I overheard in the pub many years demostrates -
'Did you see that Pulp Fiction? It's fick innit? The middle was at the beginning and the end was in the middle and then the bloke was dead and then he was alive again. I don't understand it. What a load of bollox.'
Quote: Nogget @ September 17 2009, 6:44 PM BSTI think it's only our expectations that demand resolution as an ending. In comedy, Python did away with the punchline, and while it was uncomfortable at first, we got used to it. Sure, there was no resolution, but they demonstrated that it's over-rated; their sketches 'resolved' themselves all the way through.
Possibly, but you only invest a few seconds or a couple of minutes in a sketch. To read a novel, sometimes over several weeks, and then to unexpectedly not receive a resolution, can be pretty upsetting.
Of course if you're reading a novel by an author known for that style it's different.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 17 2009, 6:44 PM BST'Did you see that Pulp Fiction? It's fick innit? The middle was at the beginning and the end was in the middle and then the bloke was dead and then he was alive again. I don't understand it. What a load of bollox.'
Mark Cousins?
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 17 2009, 6:13 PM BSTIn academic criticism nowadays it's only considered tangentially relevant what the author thinks of their work, and it's considered a given that the author may not actually know what it's about
See Lab Rats for further study.