More Stroheim (Was: Re: The Best Silent)
Tom Moran
film...@aol.com writes:
>Sorry, Jon, but we cannot judge directors by statistics. It IS opinion
and
>you're entitled to it.
>Like all of us, you want to quantify your opinions by some "neutral"
>statistic. It doesn't work.
>For the record, I like Von S a lot and find that his introduction of a
>certain kind of European sophistication influenced film tremendously
and
>helped bury the Griffith Victorianism that dominated films before him.
>BUT, that's just my opinion. :-)
There would also be no Billy Wilder without Stroheim -- or at least not
the Wilder we know and love.
I've always asserted that Wilder is the third part of an Hegelian Triad.
Lubitsch is the Thesis, Von Stroheim the Antithesis, and Wilder the
Synthesis.
If you like "Double Indemnity" or "Sunset Boulevard," you have to accept
the fact that Stroheim's influence is all over both of them. And much
else of Wilder's.
Tom Moran
Chris Dashiell
It seems like anything eventually will inspire a backlash - and lately I've
noticed an anti-Stroheim backlash. Often in favor of a reappraisal of someone
else - Pabst, maybe, or the silents of Von Sternberg.
I still enjoy Stroheim's movies very much - and I count THE WEDDING MARCH
as one of my all-time favorites. (I was mystified by recent comments in this
group calling it boring - I'm never bored during this film.)
GREED is kind of an in-between case for me. I admire the film's
grittiness, the grim choice of subject matter which is so bold for its time
period. And the visual composition is often very striking. On the other hand,
I find it hard to pay attention to Gibson Gowland and ZaSu Pitts for three
hours, not to neglect mention of Jean Hersholt, who mugs horribly throughout
the film.
THE MERRY WIDOW is great, FOOLISH WIVES much less so. QUEEN
KELLY has its moments, but its unfinished nature really shows. Anyway, my
point is that derogation of Stroheim can be exaggerated just as much as praise
was in the past.
My $.02.
Dashiell
FilmGene
<<Both DOUBLE INDEMNITY and SUNSET BOULEVARD are film noir. Are you
asserting that it is Stroheim who fathered the genre?>>
This is sophistry. Film Noir had many antecedents: German Expressionism;
Scandinavian symbolism; gangster films; French Poetic Realism AND
certainly the enhanced realism and cynicism of Von Stroheim.
This does NOT mean he fathered the genre, but was an important precursor
of that genre.
But then, you knew that, didn't you? :-)
Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC