Happy belated birthday!

Welcome back neighbor.

Here’s to Craig! Be polite!

Joel, Sartre and Sam, I agree with the consensus you have formed regarding HBO’s look at Polanski’s case. There are certainly some scabrous aspects of the entire affair that are unfortunately glossed-over.

Polanski drugs and rapes a minor (among other things), he falsely proclaims his innocence, is only convicted of a far less serious charge, and then flees the country to avoid more jail time (he had served a prison sentence to this point far less than he would have received most anywhere else).

I found the documentary interesting, but what concerned me was that these bottom-lines were glossed over in an effort to present his own “victimization” at the hands of an incompetent and unethical judge.

I have no issue with the title cards, as this film is neither a mystery nor the kind of film that is spolied by the advance telegraphing of events. I like your Bergman reference, but I’m not sold that it is applicable here. Akin deliberately uses this device, in my view to downplay the inevitability of events that were part of a known thread of social upheaval. As you pointed out yourself the characters are central to this film.
If the admittedly minor issues you bring here somehow compromise this experience, I don’t feel it would be possible to have the reaction that I had in the end.
Only the truly great contemporary films give one the kind of emotional catharsis that leaves these quibbles in the dust.

I do think Polanski got off very easy and that a regular citizen would have been given a much more serious sentence and spent a much longer time in prison. What he did was just plain inexcusable.

The Polanski documentary was indeed somewhat overhyped by certain people; I liked it because it was investigative, with that blow by blow approach, but on the other hand I do agree that it largely “coasts” in the long final stretch.

Hope your birthday was everything you were hoping, Craig! :)

As far as what my good friends Alexander and Daniel have have said about THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, well I disagree, but I disagree with full repect to your position and observances. It is interesting to note that the critic, whose opinion I value above all others, Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic, has come down on your side, and his issues with it are the same as both of your issues. You are in very good company there.
However, Kauffmann is in a severe minority as you have seen I’m sure. I found the film very subtle in its presentation of the fate motif…………that is primarily why it worked as well as it did. It was a fascinating sociological study with compelling characters, a splendid omnibus narrative that wisely did not link in the end (unlike Babel’s structure) giving the film added emotional resonance and the added level of speculation. It is film of deep moral conviction, and characters that are as sharply drawn and rendered as any film of the past few years. Fassbinder regular Hanna Shygulla delivers a towering performance as the German girl’s grieving mother, and her mourning scene literally rips your heart out. Within the framework of social upheaval, when characters are usually presented as symbols, here in Akin’s film there is a pervading and overwhelming sense of humanity, warts and all in the fascinating omnibus structure. As a result, you get to know these characters so well, it’s almost as if you were living next door to them. Within the multi-cultural design, this is of couse an incredible feat.
There are moments in this film that are ingrained in my mind that resonate with the deepest of emotions. One could hardly expect more for a film.
Hence relatively minor reservations are really left in the dust. THE EDGE OF HEAVEN is a masterpiece.
(I must get my thoughts together an dwrite a full review, but I still have the Polanski, Hellboy, The Grocer’s Son, etc. to complete as well………LOL!)

I hope you had a great birthday Craig, and I thought you would have that exact HELLBOY reaction. I do largely agree.

Also I must have missed all this Babel discussion from back when. For the record, I thought it was a mixed bag, with a few terrific scenes and performances, but then I’m also not a fan of its subgenre.

My point is, our ability (maybe yours rather than mine, hehe) to write more “efficiently” is ever-improving. Anytime I’m typing something (blog post, comment, email, work stuff), I’m mindful that the less I write, the more it will be read. In one sense that’s unfortunate, but in another it can be considered a positive adaptation. Right?

A long time ago a friend and I had a discussion about great orators, like Winston Churchill, and how they didn’t exist anymore really. I think it’s part of the effect of the ’sound-byte’ culture. No one has patience for long, well-thought out orations of that sort, anymore than they have patience for long novels like War and Peace. We live in a world of short, catchy slogans and phrases.

The tendency really spills over into everything that requires a long attention span, particularly films, music and literature that is more contemplative and more challenging in nature.

Which is why it’s interesting to me that so many of the best movies of 2007 clocked in at over 2 hours (over 2-1/2 hours in some cases, like TWBB), and with no intermission. And people still went to see them. Granted, there was usually at least one person opening up their cellphone (and distracting me with the light from it) to check the time. But these were the minority.

Well if the cake isn’t entirely made of ice cream, a generous scoop would sure go well with your delicious description! Wonder what the birthday boy’s preference is?

Guess he can’t say much cuz I jinxed him, sucker! Just kidding, go celebrate, CRAIG…

The parallel that he draws to 2001: A Space Odyssey and the emotional demise of Hal is so striking. ‘…its despair as one circuit after another goes dark, its childlike pleading with the astronaut—“I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m afraid”‘. Chilling.

Mm, cake. And it’s chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My favorite!

I’m thinking about writing a full review at CCC, expanding a bit on that breezy one-paragraph write-up. It’s definitely a worthwhile film, full of much intellectual and political meaning, despite the flaws.

Thanks for that article as well, Daniel, I’m off to take a look…

That’s one slice of cake coming up!

Craig, what kind of cake would you like for finishing the article? I was thinking an ice cream cake.

And…100!