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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Friday, May 01, 2020

entry arrow6:04 AM | The Film Meme No. 7



[7th of 100]. Stylistic audacity in film can be a make-or-break matter not even cinematic geniuses can always pull off. When it works, it works, like Jacques Tati's Playtime (1967) or Jerry Lewis's The Ladies Man (1961) or Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003). When it doesn't quite work -- think Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1982) or Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart (also 1982) -- you can admire the filmmaker's chutzpah while also marvelling over the ruins of the disaster. Then here comes this 2012 adaptation of one of the most complex classic of Russian literature with a style that blows away all the rest of the them. A straight-forward adaptation would have been the normal approach considering the original novel's thematic demands and epic breadth. But what we get instead is a complete reimagining of the story as an endless stage piece, all set in a theatre, with incidents and scenes unfolding as if we are spectator to a long, very involving play. And it works! It taught me the value of going for broke with regards a singular vision, and tells me all creative pursuits are risks you have to be willing to make. What's the film?

For the introduction to this meme, read here.


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich




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