In college, I notoriously watched The Matrix in parts; instead of watching it all at once, I kept stopping for breaks and watched it over days. At one point I went up to my friend Jon and said "So Neo's not the One, huh?" He just looked at me and ordered me to go finish the movie.
After finishing season one of The Wire, I feel like I did when I watched The Matrix in parts. Though the show is in episodes, it is not episodic: the season as a whole only makes sense as a whole. As I've watched episodes of season one, I've deeply enjoyed watching the episodes, but the episodes didn't linger with me while I wasn't watching (as shows like Big Love, or The Sopranos, did). I liked it but I didn't look forward to seeing new episodes. But I shouldn't have even tried to say whether I liked the show or not until I finished the season.
But now that I've seen season one as a whole, I feel I've seen the whole movie. The narrative and thematic arch of the show doesn't allow for single episodes to stand out: instead, you must watch the whole. Though finishing one episode of the show never made me look forward to watching the next one, finishing season one is making me clamor for another.
Showing posts with label the matrix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the matrix. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, October 30, 2006
Post-modern films, and another stupid thing I think.
PV's Post-modern Films
Skip the philosophical treatises; if you want to understand post-modernism, just watch these movies.
Wayne's World: characters speak to the camera, make many references to the fact that they are in a film, and then guide us through three endings.
The Matrix: the major theme of post-modernism is that the image actually hides the fact that there is no substance underneath it. What film highlights this theme more prominantly? By the way, I'm one of the six people on earth who liked the sequels better.
Moulin Rouge: A story within a story, but the outer story actually makes the content of the inner story, and the inner story actually shapes the content of the outer story. Got that?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: the participatory nature this film has developed blurs boundries between the work itself and the viewer.
Mulholland Dr.: Perhaps the furthest reaches of the themes of po-mo?
Annie Hall: I've documented pretty plainly here that I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but there's a certain post-modern element to his work, most noticeably in this movie.
Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull Story: Or perhaps this reaches further?
By the way, will it be totally forgotten that for a 3-5 year period of time Dana Carvey was the most popular comedian in America? Do people who were around during that time even believe it? Is there real evidence of this period? But it did happen.
The stupid thing I believe.
Frankenstein is, perhaps no more and no less, than a re-working of Paradise Lost.
Skip the philosophical treatises; if you want to understand post-modernism, just watch these movies.
Wayne's World: characters speak to the camera, make many references to the fact that they are in a film, and then guide us through three endings.
The Matrix: the major theme of post-modernism is that the image actually hides the fact that there is no substance underneath it. What film highlights this theme more prominantly? By the way, I'm one of the six people on earth who liked the sequels better.
Moulin Rouge: A story within a story, but the outer story actually makes the content of the inner story, and the inner story actually shapes the content of the outer story. Got that?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: the participatory nature this film has developed blurs boundries between the work itself and the viewer.
Mulholland Dr.: Perhaps the furthest reaches of the themes of po-mo?
Annie Hall: I've documented pretty plainly here that I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but there's a certain post-modern element to his work, most noticeably in this movie.
Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull Story: Or perhaps this reaches further?
By the way, will it be totally forgotten that for a 3-5 year period of time Dana Carvey was the most popular comedian in America? Do people who were around during that time even believe it? Is there real evidence of this period? But it did happen.
The stupid thing I believe.
Frankenstein is, perhaps no more and no less, than a re-working of Paradise Lost.
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