Jerry writes:
> I see no more oddness to the fact that many people under 30 don't
"get" _film noir_ or many other movies from the thirties and forties
such as classic musicals, than most people don't get classic opera.
I find it not only odd, but symptomatic of the hyperindividualization that affects and debases today's culture.
> The movies from the 30s and 40s and into the 50s were made in a
way that "feels" as far away from some of us as 18th and 19th century
opera felt far away to the average Beatles fan.
The cause for these works "feeling" far away is the contemporary notion that works of art must "speak" to an audienced in its own venacular. Gone is the understanding that the audience must work at understanding how a work of art expresses itself, replaced by the idiocy that the work is supposed to cater to an individual's tastes.
> Among people under 30, it seems to me, only movie buffs consciously
choose to watch these movies.
Quite true. The notion that the artistic experience requires effort and dedication is anathema to the McCulture crowd.
> Many react to them in the way my younger sister reacts to John Coltrane
and Charlie Parker. What is this? Why are you listening to this? How can
you tolerate it.? Where's the tune? Why do the notes get stretched so
much? Why are there so many notes?
Which is so sad. Instead of asking: how can I better understand this music, complaint and accusation leap to her lips since the music doesn't conform to her tastes.
> You must become acculturated to such art in order to feel and understand it.
Agreed, but the very idea of becoming acculturated to art is an idea in disgrace. If the work is not immediately apprehendable, the fault lies with the work and not the viewer/listener/reader.
> I find that good "entry films" are " Mildred Pierce" and "Double Indemnity."
Also SUNSET BOULEVARD and KISS ME DEADLY.
> I could write about screwball comedy in the same way. In the first place many
people don't find these films funny. But this is another story.
Because wit and strong female characters have been superceded by JACKASS.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister