AFS Cinema
Time Well Spent?
RECEIVED Wed., July 18, 2012
Dear Editor,
It would appear that the life of a Chronicle "film critic" is not all happy tweets and LOLbats. In last issue's reader letters there was actually an attack on Marc Savlov's cinematic critical perspective from the position that he doesn't appreciate the less sophisticated things in life, and that he is no doubt some kind of "effete snob" or maybe a "liberal elitist" and in fact a "nattering nabob" of yadda, yadda, yadda [“Postmarks,” July 13].
Be that as it may, and considering that I respect the out and proud, all-American anti-intellectualism of the respondent, my first instinct would be to assail Savlov's critiques from the other end of the spectrum given his glowing review and recommendation of puerile Dadaist hokum like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [Film Listings, June 22] a couple weeks ago. My own humble opinion was that his film writing consistently demonstrates subadult preferences and the editorial note appended to the letter in question confirmed those suspicions. Consequently, I began to entertain fantasies that he be strapped to a theatre seat with his eyelids stapled open – Clockwork Orange style – and be forced to watch Eric Rohmer movies until his head explodes.
Now as much as I hate, even for a second, to come off sounding like some kind of arthouse snob, I would like to suggest that a steady diet of comic books might not be the most intellectually or emotionally challenging pastime to engage in, especially for someone charged with cinematic analysis in a nominally "alternative/progressive" publication. I'm not going to claim that I don't read and enjoy the comics, but I also read and enjoy Slavoj Žižek and like to challenge my own culturally induced arrested development with Wong Kar-wai and Krzysztof Penderecki. Sometimes you have to exercise your brain as you would exercise your body to avoid becoming a corpulent polyp. To do less would be leaning perilously close to going "full retard," and we all know what a famous movie character once said about that (not to mention the fact that the planet has serious problems which demand all of our immediate attention).
I urge both Savlov and his detractor to consider that it might be mentally (and socially) deleterious to be frittering away the precious years of one's life obsessing over material the bulk of which is primarily intended for people under the age of 18. Life well spent? Only in cartoons, baby.
It would appear that the life of a Chronicle "film critic" is not all happy tweets and LOLbats. In last issue's reader letters there was actually an attack on Marc Savlov's cinematic critical perspective from the position that he doesn't appreciate the less sophisticated things in life, and that he is no doubt some kind of "effete snob" or maybe a "liberal elitist" and in fact a "nattering nabob" of yadda, yadda, yadda [“Postmarks,” July 13].
Be that as it may, and considering that I respect the out and proud, all-American anti-intellectualism of the respondent, my first instinct would be to assail Savlov's critiques from the other end of the spectrum given his glowing review and recommendation of puerile Dadaist hokum like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [Film Listings, June 22] a couple weeks ago. My own humble opinion was that his film writing consistently demonstrates subadult preferences and the editorial note appended to the letter in question confirmed those suspicions. Consequently, I began to entertain fantasies that he be strapped to a theatre seat with his eyelids stapled open – Clockwork Orange style – and be forced to watch Eric Rohmer movies until his head explodes.
Now as much as I hate, even for a second, to come off sounding like some kind of arthouse snob, I would like to suggest that a steady diet of comic books might not be the most intellectually or emotionally challenging pastime to engage in, especially for someone charged with cinematic analysis in a nominally "alternative/progressive" publication. I'm not going to claim that I don't read and enjoy the comics, but I also read and enjoy Slavoj Žižek and like to challenge my own culturally induced arrested development with Wong Kar-wai and Krzysztof Penderecki. Sometimes you have to exercise your brain as you would exercise your body to avoid becoming a corpulent polyp. To do less would be leaning perilously close to going "full retard," and we all know what a famous movie character once said about that (not to mention the fact that the planet has serious problems which demand all of our immediate attention).
I urge both Savlov and his detractor to consider that it might be mentally (and socially) deleterious to be frittering away the precious years of one's life obsessing over material the bulk of which is primarily intended for people under the age of 18. Life well spent? Only in cartoons, baby.
Sincerely,
Eric Ferrante
Eric Ferrante