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In Reply to: Re: Watching old films posted by patrickU on February 18, 2004 at 10:29:45:
Thinking about your Picasso analogy, I think it brings some clarity to the subject.The Egyptian one was done using the best techniques and vision of its era... and so was Picasso. But painting today in the 14th century manner will instantly brand you as dated.
Look at American portraits of 18th century. Their primitivism would be naive, if it wasn't so dated. Mind you, by that time the world already knew quite well how to paint great portraits, so these creations look out of their era.
There is that element in the Mr. Deeds. Perhaps if it was done in the twenties it would look fine, but not in the late thirties. It simply lacks the realism of the better films of that time.
I don't mean to beat L'Atalante to death, but there we have a 1934 film that doesn't require one to suspend too much to be touched by it. With Mr. Deeds you need to close the windows and try to submerge in its era.
Follow Ups:
It is not a matter for painting or building cars like 100 years ago, it is the quality and innovation, the fantasy that we, with childs eyes, may or may not discover. A variation on diverses themes, in the music or elsewhere! One thing must be clear, all arts ressemble to themselves with their helping hand to reach the divine in us, to transcend the commun in something exceptional; When being reach this goa lis then an " oeuvre dŽart. " For ever.
From day one in Mesopotany, through the Grotte of lascaux and so on, mankind was able to reach deep into the stars above us.
Theater and his poor parent ( I consider film a lesser art, showing already the decadence in the McDo time of our ) can reach us through the same artifice than music or writing and painting.
In one word quality never " outdate " and never will. The simple question, is then, what is quality? And again the answer is, what is moving us, sensually and intelectually speaking?
As for " LŽAtalante " versus Mr. Deeds it is like intellectualism versus romantisism, the same goal, different ways.
That is probably the heart of the matter. We can't just say that everything produced as "art" at any period was indeed art. Art does presume innovation, but not just the innovation for the innovation's sake, but one that truly moves the society forward.Regarding the Mr. Deed's romantism... there is fine line with romantism - romantic things can indeed become corny in no time at all. I think that happens to Mr. Deeds to some degree. As the result I felt like I could leave the film at any moment... unlike the L'Atalante or the even earlier Battleship Potemkin.
Mr. Deed seems to reflect the current fashion for the naively "humanistic" films - I put it it quotes because in reality they were more warm fuzzy corny things than truly humanistic manifestations (well, to be fair they DID have humanism in them, just with a good coat of sugar).
So the things of true quality (Chaplin, Potemkin, etc) tend to stay fresh, and those that more or less reflect the prevailing fashion tend to feel dated.
Yes it is. Of course nobody can completely escape his time ...Read in a wider meaning " fashion, " and this is the crossroad for the artist who can extrapolate as much out of it in a kind of sublimation that he gives back trough his work. To our joy! Maybe less a forward movement, but rather a consciousness of the moment.
I would rather speak of a fresh presentation, more of an indivudual one.
Mr. Deeds is not my preferred Capra film so I will leave at it, suffice to say that it has all the " innocence " more that that, the naiveté that is just another way to combat the evil in us.
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