Odie: Nobody rocks an ascot like PB. Aaron: Yeah, well, he admits that he doesn't see everything, but on the other hand, I think his remark about the intelligent all-things-to-all-people grownup feature becoming increasingly rare are right on the money (except around November/December, when the studios decide they need to serve a little roughage to earn awards and counteract the candy they churn out the rest of the year). I thought about arguing with him on this point, but the idea was to represent PB's views, so I tried to hang back a little more than usual.
I did argue with his assertion that the copious nods to film history in "The Last Picture Show," et al, weren't a huge aspect of his early fame and respectability. His response was interesting. If I were going to argue with him about there not being many American movies staking out that artistic/commercial middleground, i wouldn't choose "Sweet Land" or "Far From Heaven.
" First of all, both were released by "so-called independents," not the studios, which was his main point, I think. Also, personally I was underwhelmed by both those films. "Sweet Land" was good, but the conscious invocations of Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" only emphasized the unadventurous nature of its storytelling (as if "Malick" equals "beautiful images of landscapes and people eating by candlelight").
It was Malick for people who don't like Malick; Donovan to Malick's Bob Dylan, if you know what I mean. It just made me wish I was watching "Days of Heaven" again. "Far From Heaven" was an interesting experiment, but ultimately self-defeating, I thought, because it got swallowed up in its own homages and -- except for Dennis Quaid's rich and lively performance -- often seemed to be embalming the genre it was trying to celebrate.
I'd show it on a double bill with Gus van Sant's "Psycho," another movie that was intriguing on paper but struck me as too theoretical and self-conscious to work on its own terms. Yeah, I know that was the point, but I'm not convinced it's a point worth making. "The Last Picture Show," on the other hand, has a life apart from its references to John Ford, William Wyler and the like.
Maybe the passage of time will nudge "Far From Heaven" into the same weight class and prove me wrong, but for now I don't see it happening. Odie: Nobody rocks an ascot like PB.
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