RE: RARA-AVIS: NYT piece on Winterbottom's THE KILLER INSIDE ME

From: Ron Clinton (clinton65@comcast.net)
Date: 17 Jun 2010

  • Next message: John Stickney: "RARA-AVIS: WSJ piece on Jim Thompson"

    > (Foley also did a great job with . . . GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS,

    Ahh, one of my favorite films of all time.

    Ron C.

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
    > Behalf Of davidcorbett622
    > Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 9:18 AM
    > To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: RARA-AVIS: NYT piece on Winterbottom's THE KILLER INSIDE ME
    >
    > I finally got around to reading this piece, which appeared two weeks ago
    in the
    > Times. I'd be interested in the list's take. I was frankly a little
    rankled by its premise:
    > Only European directors know how to film Thompson, supposedly (according
    to
    > Tavernier) because they see him as a literary artist, and don't play up
    the pulp at
    > the expense of the "metaphysical elements" which Americans "always leave
    out."
    >
    > Admittedly, the American versions cited in the piece fall short, but the
    writer
    > (Charles McGrath) completely ignores James Foley's AFTER DARK, MY SWEET.
    > Weird omission. I thought it was a great film, a worthy adaptation of
    Thompson with
    > deft handling of the "metaphysics" -- whatever the hell that's supposed to
    mean in
    > this context; I take it to mean the psychological and moral subtlety and
    complexity -
    > - but it was overshadowed by THE GRIFTERS, which came out at the same
    time.
    > In fact, I almost wonder if McGrath ignored AFTER DARK MY SWEET precisely
    to
    > handicap the Europeans-Do-Jim-Better canard.
    >
    > (Foley also did a great job with AT CLOSE RANGE and GLENGARRY GLEN
    > ROSS, then apparently had personal problems and made a only few films
    after
    > that. I've seen FEAR and THE CORRUPTORS, both with Mark Wahlberg, liked
    > both, but neither were as impressive as the earlier stuff.)
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > ------------------------------------
    >
    > RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
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    >
    >
    >



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