I've always been a big fan of Cronenberg, but with his recent spate of films he seems to be turning into one of the Greatest Directors of All Time right before our very eyes. It's amazing product, and amazing to watch.
It's amazing going back to his old movies where you can see, budget limitations (and sometimes his actors abilities) aside, the way he films things has been consistent from the get go. The subject matter has changed, but his attitude towards and his visualization of it has remained pretty much the same. I've been following his career since almost the beginning (I came to his work as a rabid -no pun intended - horror movie fan), and it has been amazing to watch.
I know everyone's self-absorbed, I know that everyone is the star and hero of their own narrative, but the amount to which everyone else was reduced to bit players in these guys' personal narratives was damn near sociopathic.
This is so very well said.
Randall Munroe of xkcd makes an observation about female leads in movies:
WHY did I read the comments? WHY? WHY?
I think you and I probably disagree as to how much Herzog judges him though. I don't think he romanticizes him like a Don Quixote character (maybe like a Don Quixote where Sancho Panza is eaten by a bear).
Gotcha. I was trying to make him seem like a sub-Quixote with my qualifications, but I could have been more clear. I mean, I think the Quixote comparison works to some degree because both chose to address their perceived problem in a completely insane manner. But, yeah, Cervantes actually likes Quixote and I think Herzog didn't so much like Treadwell as he liked the mental place Treadwell went, where madness and inspiration drove him to make beautiful films from a perspective far outside the mainstream of society, although his all-too-human tendency to anthropomorphicize nature led to tragic results. Treadwell's not that different from the classic Herzog protagonist, really, and Treadwell's skill as a filmmaker works well with Herzog's tendency to appropriate documentary film into his movies.
WHY did I read the comments? WHY? WHY?
There's some good discussion in there! I must have skimmed over the bad parts.
There's some good discussion in there!
And then there are the people who explain that women are just naturally less believable actors than men, or that sexism never plays a part in anything.
And then my head explodes, and it's just so messy.
That's why we need to go back to the Elizabethan theater model! So we can see Jeremy Irons playing Ophelia!
I hate everybody.
passes Sean the Fernet and a cigarette
Yup.
So we can see Jeremy Irons playing Ophelia!
....
Okay, I kind of want to see that.
