Within the annoying habit of tiring oneself out for absolutely no reason, brief observations may be made: We all know Rosemary's Baby is a scathing send up of liberal pretensions, and we all know it has the distinct signature of an auteur who like Mr. Allen after him, got caught up in a grandiose self-importance. (I struggle with the rape and the artistic genius and we'll say fuck it and leave Jacob wrestling the angel on the precipice in perpetuity.) Beyond that, we may get frustrated with the finesse of the satire and finding a language for it. Richard Fleischer offers a sharp contrast to Polanski's invidious mission creep with See No Evil (71), a fast paced thriller that dispenses with analogy-- if Polanski's Satanism is a representative stand in for urban stratification-- and has a dialectical argument which dispenses with the dynamic allure of masochism. Fleischer adamantly keeps his feet on the ground. Mia is still the damsel, but merely an unwitting one, as opposed to Polanski's inimical manipulation of a heroine who has few tools with which to alter her destiny as a modern Pandora.
We'll hold this conceit for a significant length.
No comments:
Post a Comment