[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

Well there are films where human life is represented as being valuable, and films where it is not. I can find the killing of a peasant in PAN'S LABYRINTH offensive, because he is represented as the innocent in us. I can find the deaths in PIRAHNA funny, because it is a disproportionate punishment for people who represent the worst in us. (A film like Liam Neeson's TAKEN is harder to place, because on the one hand, I could understand Parisians being offended by the caricature of what they and their city stand for. On the other hand, a group of stupid criminals stand in the path of a steamroller and dare it not to run them over, so there's some humour for me when he does -- again and again and again -- over the course of the film.)

Honestly, your statement precludes the power of fiction to arouse emotion. If fiction didn't arouse emotion, it would not exist. But with it's power comes the power to offend.

I assume that places like Benidorm and Mallorca hadn't been identified as package holiday destinations that early? I'm not sure when the package holiday phenomenon began.

An old friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us used to love telling people his travel stories, he travelled all around Europe in the early 1950's and said that he came across a lovely idylic beach with only one small shack for people to rent a bed.

And the name of that place?

Benidorm

That's a valid point. But sometimes people will have reactions contrary to the goal of the director. If a movie is intended as sad and realistic but the director does a poor job or the actors are poor, then there's the risk that people will be taken out of the alternative reality the movie is trying to create, and this can result in reactions that the director didn't intend. In the case currently discussed that's exactly the issue, due to the poor job of the actress. She ends up being annoying and she ruins the experience for people due to not doing her job as well as was needed for the scenes to work and have an emotional impact.

Peter

What? I thought it was a good example illustrating the fact that people's reactions towards fictional events is often very different from reactions to the events if real.




They can, but not necessarily. It depends on alot of things, first and foremost on how well the movie does its job of creating an alternate reality. If the movie/show fails, responses won't be in line with how the responses would be if the events were real. When an actor/actress does a poor job, it can really be grating.

Peter

What I'm upset about is that someone called a suffering mother a bitch!!!!!!!!! I would really like to know WHY D called her a bitch?

Here is what you wrote

"Not as annoying as Claire constantly screaming "My baby!!!". That chick had hysterical fits in half of her scenes, and the worst thing is that she wasn't really a good actor when she was playing highly emotional scenes."

D's response.

"Yeah, you're right Claire is more annoying ! Already forgot about that bitch."

Now, she might be annoying but that doesn't make her a bitch! So, what I want to know is if this was real suffering mother screaming "my baby" then would he have called her a bitch as well?



I'm handling the heat and have read your posts but it seems like you refuse to read what I have to say or acknowledge that fact that in numerous posts above I have stated that I KNOW LOST AND IT'S CHARACTERS AREN'T REAL! So take that out of your thought process.





NO! I MUST HAVE THE LAST WORD!

Sure. I'm just still trying to figure out D's motivation more so then have an argument with you.

-Erik-

It doesn't matter. It's the context. Whether it is real or not this sort of stuff actually does happened in the real world. There are REAL mothers who go into hysterics over a lost child. What Lost was trying to depict was how a mother would (and have) reacted if there baby was stolen from them. So why is a screaming, hysterical actor, acting like a real mother, screaming over her lost child a bitch?

That's the best I can do. My head hurts. Time to listen to some soothing music OR maybe Slipstream!

-Erik-

^ Now that makes sense. Personally, I didn't have an issue with Claire. Actually, now that I think of it I wasn't convinced with the evil Claire in season 6. That took me out of a lot of the final episodes.

-Erik-

This is bigger than a director though. You are wondering why we feel things when we know -- at heart -- we are not being presented with reality. Our willingness to pretend these things are real, for emotional involvement, is one of the great mysteries of human behaviour. But the empathy is there -- why else would we have to be always reminded when young (and even when grown up) - 'it's just a story'? Because it feels like more when you're in the story.

*sigh*

D said "bitch" because he meant to say something negative.
It's not much more complicated than that.

I refer to my earlier post concerning meaning and context for native and non-native speakers.
I'm betting a native speaker would never have said bitch, because its significance, meaning and impact in English is a significantly different one than a mere "something negative".

That said, a native speaker might conceivably have referred to her as an annoying cunt or somesuch.
I wouldn't have agreed either, but at least the utterance would have been linguistically and contextually congruent to build a discussion on.
Not so here.

Now then. As you were, gentlemen.

that last post won't seem to come through completely -- oh well, it doesn't matter. i don't like LOST anyway.

I watched Doomed To Die a 1940 Monogram mystery with Karloff in the role of James Wong Oriental detective.
http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/d … -die-1940/

I can think of a better way to spend an hour even though it is available in public domain for free.
Thomas

Watched Monsters yesterday. Definitely not a monsters flick but a good character-driven story with aliens in the background - mostly.

Nice slow pace too. A good way to pass 90 minutes.

Oh well Tom, remember that Christopher Lee played Fu Manchu in a few movies