Reality on the run (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cahiers_du_2006) wrote,@ 2009-04-13 20:08:00 |
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Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
I'm pretty sure that Gus Van Sant knows better than I do all the criticisms you could throw at Milk.
Milk looks best in the parts where Gus Van Sant seems to have artificially aged the film. Made certain colours fade. But I'm conflicted about my enjoyment of those images. I wonder if this is more style over substance fakery. But what about Rosilini who used newsreel filmstock for Rome, Open City? Or Godard who overprocessed his filmstock to the same effect for Les carabiniers? Would you question their motives as aesthetic over substance?
What ax do I have to grind against Milk? Because it's a big film? Because it's a big opera of triumphant individualism? Because it's not a radical film and doesn't celebrate revolutionary culture?
I feel like a nap.
I'm pretty sure that Gus Van Sant knows better than I do all the criticisms you could throw at Milk.
Milk looks best in the parts where Gus Van Sant seems to have artificially aged the film. Made certain colours fade. But I'm conflicted about my enjoyment of those images. I wonder if this is more style over substance fakery. But what about Rosilini who used newsreel filmstock for Rome, Open City? Or Godard who overprocessed his filmstock to the same effect for Les carabiniers? Would you question their motives as aesthetic over substance?
What ax do I have to grind against Milk? Because it's a big film? Because it's a big opera of triumphant individualism? Because it's not a radical film and doesn't celebrate revolutionary culture?
I feel like a nap.
