Really? Wow. My whole point was that one shouldn't expect any certain sort of book to be any given length, and therefore it is odd to call this slim.

But that isn't the point. 300 pages is not "slim" as regards this material. Massive historical novels covering more complex systems or more expansive timelines are only, at the upper-range, three times this length. (And this is not a knock on this book, because I'd rather read this than Leon Uris.)

Pagina
Is 300-pages slim, really, for a bunch of thematically-related short-stories?

Yeah, just put it under your pillow while you sleep.

Great.
I love how these guys answered these questions. It is as if they have no fucking clue how influential and pervasive their movies are on everybody's lives. And as if they have no idea what they are about, or that there is a whole generalised idea of what their work is about.

I loved this!
I liked it when Albert Finney decided to become a hapless gumshoe after reading a bunch of pulp; I loved Billie Whitelaw as the ex, and it was so fun to see the dark comedic aspects of crime and urban alienation.

possible worlds
Colonel Brandon rendered tragic with tentacles? More like rendered Byronically good-looking!

Numbers
Sometimes he seems kinda right on, but other times he seems lame. I mean, the guy writes modern American, liberal-themed versions of Dreyer films or suspense spectaculars. The meaningful films seem a lot less meaningful then they set out to be because they forget to tell a substantial story worth giving…

"Menage a tues" translates more-or-less to House(hold) of Kill… which is fair.

Ecclesiastes, the Eeyore of the Old Testament.
The point of the quote 'nothing new under the sun' isn't contradicted by saying everything under the sun can be combined in 'near-inifinte' ways. It is meant to convey the utlimate meaningless of seeming novelty.

I'm almost on your wavelength, Commander, but I was thinking Gymkata II: Return to Parmistan directed by P.T. Anderson. It could be rad. The film's visuals were based on the work of Bruegel and Bosch, so it would have just layer upon layer of collaboration. Not to mention the fusing of ancient physical disciplines.

I'd take your cutting remarks into consideration had you'd known that Tsai Ming-Liang was the other director in question, not Chen Kaige. And calling Zhang Zimou an empty formalist, at least in his earlier years, would be indefensible in an informed discussion.

@ Octo: Sorry. I thought I did address your remark. I really didn't mean to take Ugh! out of context.

-mistakes

New Wu side project: Wu on the Moon: Moon-Tang Clan Forever.

Sorry, I forgot to think about the Wu-Tang clan as the culminating manifestation of Absolute Spirit—that, they clearly are.

Depends on your definition of "anything of importance". If you are talking about 'non-action' art films as important, then it has influenced movies like Ju-Dou or Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

I don't intend to be controversial, but I find these old Shaw Brothers films to be tedious. I like this sort of cinema, but maybe it is more evolutionary, like the old ones serve a purpose and in their time are good, but are surpassed by the films that follow.

It is not at all going out on a limb for me to say that this is not *only* the best trailer I've ever seen, it is simply the *most* stunning, most whimsical and most world-dwarfing configuration of visual phenomena to pass before my eyes. (Since the last Betsey Johnson runway show.) Bref.

How so?