MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: BOCCACCIO ‘70 (1962)

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

BOCCACCIO ‘70 (1962)

Now stunningly restored (including the long missing Mario Monicelli segment) this 4-part film is a useful snapshot of ‘60s Italian cinema. The directors involved (Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti & Vittorio De Sica) each delivered masterpieces; alas not here, but in follow-ups to these casual hors d’oeuvres. Monicelli’s little parable on marriage, work & housing is a modest charmer, with a marvelous visual design. Fellini’s screed against puritanism starts well (great outfits on the serried religious orders), but it’s absurdly/prophetically overextended. Visconti’s Eurotrash where-has-love-gone marital morality play is loathsomely effective and certainly piss-ass elegant in composition & decor. Thankfully, De Sica lets us all off the hook in his coarse Music Hall vein that critics bemoan & audiences love (cheers & huzzahs to the hoi polloi!) in his famous "Win Sophia Loren Raffle" sketch. She’s just unbelievably yummy. But when you know these guys have got THE ORGANIZER, 8-1/2, THE LEOPARD and YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW next in the pipeline, this is just a weigh station.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

BOCCACCIO ‘70 (1962)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE