versus
Janina writes about The Dreamers, and she's not wrong, you know. Comparisons between this and Lost In Translation probably arise only because they're the last two films she & I saw, but they have a few things in common, not least of which is the excellent use of music in both (I am reminded yet again how I feel about Hendrix). Whether the difference between the two films represents an American/European divide, I'm not so sure. If I wanted a handy soundbite with which to sum up the difference in ideologies, I'd say that The Dreamers knows that privilege is an immensely enjoyable pleasure which one should work to undo, whereas Lost In Translation labours under the illusion that privilege is a difficult, troubling burden which nevertheless must be maintained.
Apparently The Dreamers has been damned by the critics in certain quarters - I've not been privy to much damning, but I can see why it might provoke some hatin'. You know what the word most often used in a pejorative sense about films I like? Pretentious. I have no doubt that stuffy film critics a-plenty queued up to call The Dreamers 'pretentious', not to mention 'arty', like that was a bad thing. They probably added 'self-indulgent' for good measure. Like Chuck said: "All the critics you can hang 'em, I'll hold the rope."
If I were to string together a longer post on the film, it would probably focus on its place in a miniature genre which also includes Performance, Y Tu Mam? Tambi?n and Withnail & I. In each one, a kind of squalid bohemia is achieved only to fall apart as a result of or in conjunction with the intrusion of a harsher reality, usually overtly or implicitly connected with political repression/conservatism. Each film also concerns homoerotic tension or anxiety, although Withnail doesn't fit in quite so well because women are just absent from the movie rather than providing a catalyst, or to put it more simply excuse, for the guys to almost or actually get it on. Okay, that's all I got for now. You should go see the movie, if nothing else all three leads are easy on the eye in their own way. I might even need to see it again.
Janina writes about The Dreamers, and she's not wrong, you know. Comparisons between this and Lost In Translation probably arise only because they're the last two films she & I saw, but they have a few things in common, not least of which is the excellent use of music in both (I am reminded yet again how I feel about Hendrix). Whether the difference between the two films represents an American/European divide, I'm not so sure. If I wanted a handy soundbite with which to sum up the difference in ideologies, I'd say that The Dreamers knows that privilege is an immensely enjoyable pleasure which one should work to undo, whereas Lost In Translation labours under the illusion that privilege is a difficult, troubling burden which nevertheless must be maintained.
Apparently The Dreamers has been damned by the critics in certain quarters - I've not been privy to much damning, but I can see why it might provoke some hatin'. You know what the word most often used in a pejorative sense about films I like? Pretentious. I have no doubt that stuffy film critics a-plenty queued up to call The Dreamers 'pretentious', not to mention 'arty', like that was a bad thing. They probably added 'self-indulgent' for good measure. Like Chuck said: "All the critics you can hang 'em, I'll hold the rope."
If I were to string together a longer post on the film, it would probably focus on its place in a miniature genre which also includes Performance, Y Tu Mam? Tambi?n and Withnail & I. In each one, a kind of squalid bohemia is achieved only to fall apart as a result of or in conjunction with the intrusion of a harsher reality, usually overtly or implicitly connected with political repression/conservatism. Each film also concerns homoerotic tension or anxiety, although Withnail doesn't fit in quite so well because women are just absent from the movie rather than providing a catalyst, or to put it more simply excuse, for the guys to almost or actually get it on. Okay, that's all I got for now. You should go see the movie, if nothing else all three leads are easy on the eye in their own way. I might even need to see it again.
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