http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Mon, 3 Mar 2008 16:44:36 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/01/16/071838.php#comment-699456 Like has nothing to do with criticism, and Surrealism is not difficult to understand, but bad art, by whatever -ism it's labeled, is still bad art. Being part of a school does not insulate one from the objective merits of success or not. 'The overuse of emotive adjectives such as "puerile", "pretentious", "abysmal" and "excruciatingly" point to this being a treatise against the filmmaker instead of an honest appraisal of the film.' Given the substance of the film, they were tame adjectives, and used sparingly. Bunuel was nothing if self-indulgent and obvious. 'nowhere does he indicate any realisation that the movie is supposed to be funny.' The key word is supposed, which, you unwittingly underscore in support of my point. 'Then there is the constant harping on the weakness of the "plot" and the unrealism of the "characters"' Surrealism, or any other school, does not abnegate the basics of storytelling, although to weak minds, such never occurs, -ismically or not. 699456@blogcritics.org Mon, 3 Mar 2008 16:44:36 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/01/16/071838.php#comment-699250 Crikey, it sounds like the reviewer has an axe to grind with Buñuel and with surrealism. This review reads like one man's attack on a form he neither likes nor understands. The overuse of emotive adjectives such as "puerile", "pretentious", "abysmal" and "excruciatingly" point to this being a treatise against the filmmaker instead of an honest appraisal of the film. The reviewer's misunderstanding of the movie is apparent throughout. For instance, nowhere does he indicate any realisation that the movie is supposed to be funny. This even while he is describing some of the movie's funnier scenes, which he seems to think are failed dramatic moments! Then there is the constant harping on the weakness of the "plot" and the unrealism of the "characters" - complete irrelevances in a surrealist film. One might as well complain of the lack of sword-fighting skeletons in Italian realist film. All in all, a misguided review. 699250@blogcritics.org Sun, 2 Mar 2008 21:36:51 EST