The House Next Door

1. The new Senses of Cinema has gone live. Two House contributors in this issue: Andrew Schenker with his essay "On the Terminal in Cinema" and Kevin B. Lee with notes on Mambo Girl.

["In his monograph on Samuel Beckett, A. Alvarez famously characterizes the author’s trilogy as “a terminal vision, a terminal style and, from the point of view of possible development, a work at least as aesthetically terminal as [James Joyce’s] Finnegan’s Wake” (1). As used by Alvarez, the term denotes both an artistic vision thoroughly steeped in mortality, an “undeviating withdrawal from [...] the exterior world”, and a stylistic approach that represents an end in itself, where no further explorations are possible in a given direction. (2) Just as Joyce’s nocturnal language comprised of every conceivable extant language and a slew of neologisms is not an approach that can be duplicated or an example that can be built upon, the increasingly deconstructed language employed by Beckett in his trilogy, comprised of an endless, repetitive stream of words stripped of grammar, narrative thrust and (largely) meaning, is an approach that represents the termination of another line of æsthetic inquiry. What remains at the end of Beckett is a pure stream of language."]

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2. News of the moment: "California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban" (from The New York Times, more info gathered at Slate); "John McCain and Barack Obama tilt toward the center on Iraq plans" (the L.A. Times reports on a little bit of wiffle-waffling); "Top Hollywood agent Cowan dies" (BBC News reports).

["The California Supreme Court, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. The 4-to-3 decision, drawing on a ruling 60 years ago that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, would make California the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages. The decision, which becomes effective in 30 days unless the court grants a stay, was greeted with celebrations at San Francisco City Hall, where thousands of same-sex marriages were thrown out by the courts four years ago."]

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3. "The curious case of Woody Allen-- Psychoanalysis, auteurism, and film criticism": By Ted Pigeon at The Cinematic Art.

["While the similarities in Allen's work are as undeniable as they are influential, I sometimes wonder whether his films actually resemble the discursive representations of them that critics have been piling up and recycling for years. The film criticism canon on the cinema of Woody Allen has reduced him to a simplified image, framing his films according to a defined terminology and level discourse emerging from the popularity of Annie Hall and the discourse that was spurned when Manhattan was placed in direct comparison with it when it was released. In spite of the high critical status of both movies (Annie Hall and Manhattan), each film's individual merit is based on the other. That they are compared and contrasted so heavily prevents one from seeing each film on any other terms other than as the counterpart or "other half" of the other. No matter how much Allen grows, that growth is only judged by how it relates to the established Woody Allen Film lexicon."]

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4. "Bad Journalism: Pet Peeves of a Film Critic (and Other Cinematic Thoughts)": By House contributor Rob Humanick, for his site The Projection Booth.

["Whether inhabited by movie hounds or the public at large, the Web - seeping into every aspect of our lives, already something of a chord-less Matrix (do I smell a Cronenberg movie?) - seems a ripe place for popular opinion to fester, spawn, and consume, a fascist presence that finds sustenance in its own existence. I can hardly glance at those message boards without feeling the death of free thought, and as someone who hates The Usual Suspects and The Shawshank Redemption but loves The Blair Witch Project and War of the Worlds, it's particularly tough going. It's message boarding as World of Warcraft, without the option of declining a fight."]

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5. "Children and Dogs": Dan Sallitt examines the common reactions to onscreen death.

["Here’s an old idea that I’ve tossed around on a_film_by once or twice. We are all used to seeing people die in movies and not having it ruin our day. Many people believe that this restrained reaction is due to our knowledge that we are watching a fiction, our awareness that no one is really dying. If, however, at the end or a row of anonymous movie extras being gunned down, the assistant director should accidentally place a child or a dog, the theater owner will hear about it. Some people’s days will in fact be ruined. This surplus sensitivity to the onscreen deaths of children and domestic animals is extremely common. Spectators who endeavor to elevate their compassion for adult victims may succeed in leveling the playing field to an extent; but almost everyone understands, on a gut level, the special status of children and animals."]

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Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): A picture from the explosion of Chile's Chaitén volcano.



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Clip of the Day: Praise The Apple.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.