I've just seen the American film "Shame".
I didn't expect much, and my prejudices were not threatened....
I expect a film to yield insight. I would like to get inside a character or situation, but the
protagonist of this film was very much on the surface. So, I would call it a superficial film
with a pop psychology (Freudian) suggestion. (viz., must have been something in his childhood
---How informative!)
Is the level of culture in the USA so low that this counts as a "serious" film? I guess so.
Americans are afraid of sex, and then when they make a film about sex, it's not a film about
normal sex, but about perverse sex...... indeed, exploitative sex---but the issue of exploitation is very much back-stage. Strictly speaking, the perspective of the film would lump together more normal (not for pay) sex with exploitative (for pay) sex because the hero of the film is unable to see the difference between them. That is a distortion. It ignores an important difference. (And so when I hear the remark: finally a film about sex in the USA---I am not impressed....)
get me out of here!
PS My conscience requires me to say that the film was shown at a place where people are
trying to encourage discussion and culture. Good for them. I support such activities, but,
in the USA the level is so low...one starts with so many disadvantages...
PPS It seems to me that any Czech or Slovak film whatsoever has something to say about sex.......with
more understanding, and less superficially........aka, in an adult way....In the USA the men and women must go to the gym so that they display athletic bodies during the sex scenes. That, too, is extremely boring! )-:
gmmoh
An after-thought:
There are important questions about what happens to a person who spends excessive time viewing pornography on the internet. One intelligent discussion of this found at Richard D Wolff's website where he interviews the therapist Harriet Fraad. My gripe about the film is that it did nothing to increase my understanding beyond what I'd already gotten by hearing Fraad..
Moreover, I am not sure it was necessary in the film to have a bloody suicide scene to show that the protagonist's family was troubled. On the contrary, that seems precisely the sort of heavy-handed approach that Hollywood specializes in.......Not subtle.......
LINKS
The Country Teacher
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1284526/
(equally good: another film by Bohdan Slama, "Happiness" ("Stesti") (for some reason transalted as: "Something Like Happiness")
ttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406098/
An Interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad--it's a few minutes into the show (RWolff's Economic Update, 14 April, 2012)
http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-wbai-apr-14th-2012
About the porn industry and the effects of the capitalist system on families, working men:
http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5791:capitalism-and-loneliness-why-pornography-is-a-multibilliondollar-industry
PS: Fraad isn't in the business of seriously comparing the USA and other countries; that's not her goal. However, I can say (since I do it all the time) that when she documents the loneliness of the USA, and since I have lived elsewhere, this is further ground for my judgment that the USA is a bad place to live---worse than Austria, or even Slovakia.......Genuine friendships are harder to achieve in the USA.....
An after-thought:
There are important questions about what happens to a person who spends excessive time viewing pornography on the internet. One intelligent discussion of this found at Richard D Wolff's website where he interviews the therapist Harriet Fraad. My gripe about the film is that it did nothing to increase my understanding beyond what I'd already gotten by hearing Fraad..
Moreover, I am not sure it was necessary in the film to have a bloody suicide scene to show that the protagonist's family was troubled. On the contrary, that seems precisely the sort of heavy-handed approach that Hollywood specializes in.......Not subtle.......
LINKS
The Country Teacher
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1284526/
(equally good: another film by Bohdan Slama, "Happiness" ("Stesti") (for some reason transalted as: "Something Like Happiness")
ttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406098/
An Interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad--it's a few minutes into the show (RWolff's Economic Update, 14 April, 2012)
http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-wbai-apr-14th-2012
About the porn industry and the effects of the capitalist system on families, working men:
http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5791:capitalism-and-loneliness-why-pornography-is-a-multibilliondollar-industry
PS: Fraad isn't in the business of seriously comparing the USA and other countries; that's not her goal. However, I can say (since I do it all the time) that when she documents the loneliness of the USA, and since I have lived elsewhere, this is further ground for my judgment that the USA is a bad place to live---worse than Austria, or even Slovakia.......Genuine friendships are harder to achieve in the USA.....
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