The Barefoot Contessa (Film, not the website)

[August1991]

I never liked Ava Gardner - as a supposedly beautiful woman or an actress. In all her films, I was never impressed - I just don't get it. Years ago, while driving to Florida from Montreal, I drove by her birthplace in North Carolina. WTF? So, ignore the costumes, the women wearing weird dresses (where is Edith Head when you need her). Ignore the Japanese colours. Moreover, this movie has nothing to do with Chaplin, Brando or Hong Kong.

This movie is available on Tubi and it's a far better remake of Cinderella than Shrek - if only for the debate between the two rich guys, American and South American, in Part II, Scene Two.

As I watched this movie, it struck me that our current 2020s world is very similar to the 1950s portrayed. But the 1910s world was fundamentally different from the 1950s - but the 1910s were similar to the world of the 1820s. And the 1820s fundamentally different from the 1780s

Edited February 18 by August1991

[Michael Hardner]

8 hours ago, August1991 said:

 As I watched this movie, it struck me that our current 2020s world is very similar to the 1950s portrayed.  

As such, we have a major cultural change on the horizon I believe.  The millennial and z generation are going to switch direction from the Barry Goldwater traditions of the last 40 years.

It's going to be a challenge for older folks like us if we're still around.

The first signs of it are older people like Don Cherry being erased from the Zeitgeist.

[August1991]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:19 AM, Michael Hardner said:

As such, we have a major cultural change on the horizon I believe.  The millennial and z generation are going to switch direction from the Barry Goldwater traditions of the last 40 years.

It's going to be a challenge for older folks like us if we're still around.

The first signs of it are older people like Don Cherry being erased from the Zeitgeist.

Michael,

Whenever I read or see something from the 1920s, it seems obviously old. But sometimes it seems modern.

And when I see something from the 1950s - from wherever -Japan, Soviet Union, America - it often seems normal.

But anything from the 1840s - you know, Hugo or Austen - this is obviously different.

[August1991]

Mozart is amazing. Balzac? It seems so modern.

Musicians and artists seem in advance of their time.

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I thought about this. Uh, no.

[August1991]

Let me explain my point:

1. Culture is in advance of politics. (An American pundit made this point.)

1a. Musicians are the most advanced.

2. Mathematicians are in advance of physics, what we observe.

2a. Mathematicians imagine what is possible.

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I think Woody Allen made a movie with this idea:

Midnight in Paris

 

Edited April 10 by August1991

[Michael Hardner]

6 hours ago, August1991 said:

Let me explain my point:

1. Culture is in advance of politics. (An American pundit made this point.)

1a. Musicians are the most advanced.

 

Very interesting post, Auguste.

 

McCluhan used to say visual artists were the most advanced, the antennae of our culture.  I was reminded of that when I watched midnight cowboy, a film from 1970. The Andy Warhol crowd, or a facsimile, makes an appearance and they seem like they walked onto the screen from Queen Street West present day.

[August1991]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:54 AM, Michael Hardner said:

Very interesting post, Auguste.

 

McCluhan used to say visual artists were the most advanced, the antennae of our culture.  I was reminded of that when I watched midnight cowboy, a film from 1970. The Andy Warhol crowd, or a facsimile, makes an appearance and they seem like they walked onto the screen from Queen Street West present day.

Here, I disagree.

1. True. Popular musicians are in advance of politics. (Imagine what Mozart predicted... )

2. Mathematicians? Too many to mention. 

Edited April 13 by August1991