| Author |
Message |
|
| billyweeds |
 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:50 am |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| I'm with Joe about the wedgie guy from Jackass (and Jeremy, too, even if he meant his statement "ironically"). It's called "performance art." |
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:51 am |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
| I was having fun, but I’m not sure that I was being wholly ironic, rather I was openly expressing my own lack of clarity of thought of what is art. I do think that in some ways Jackass does qualify as performance art or rather a post-modern parody of it and many things besides. But I also feel that there is a difference, between what both Jackass and even Damien Hirst provides and art produced by those whose main aim is to produce something of lasting beauty (in the widest sense of the word) or empathy or resonance or…All these forms of art take part in a ongoing discourse, but making conversation is not the prime objective of the latter. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:08 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| As a friend/art professor of mine used to say, "There's too much art in the world." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| tirebiter |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:28 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
|
| Well, as yhey used to say at the art department at my old school, "Fuck art, let's fuck." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:36 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
tirebiter wrote: Well, as yhey used to say at the art department at my old school, "Fuck art, let's fuck."
I seem to remember that as a mantra in our Fine Arts School also. Really. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:08 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
| Much to everybody's surprise, including mine, I got a Grade 1 in my Certificate of Secondary Education for art. My course work left something to be desired, but apparently the markers were much taken with my exam piece, an expressionist water colour depicting the smoke filled, muddy confusion of a Napoleanic battlefield. For once my lack of control of a paint brush worked in my favour. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bart |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:39 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
|
| The function of art is to get everyone to shut up for a minute. |
_________________
Former 3rd Eye Member |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:55 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Picked up a double disc entitled Forbidden Hollywood yesterday. It features 3 pre-code films: Red-Headed Woman, Waterloo Bridge (1931), and Baby Face.
I watched Baby Face last night and that was something. A fairly ironic title, as Barbara Stanwyck is a tough young broad who sleeps her way to the top, leaving broken men in her wake. Even though intimate moments are left for off-screen, it's pretty implicit just what is going on off-camera. A frankness that wouldn't be seen again in US films for quite some time. A reminder how film history has had a rather staggered progression (and sometimes positively retrograde). |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:56 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Blood Diamond is definitely worth the time. Far from perfect (the structure is borderline confusing), but it's gripping and "meaningful," and includes a great performance by Djimon Hounsou, who was nominated for the Oscar but somehow got lost in the media blitz of his (excellent) costar DiCaprio and the other African-Americans. Hounsou totally steals this particular show, with a memorable, inspired take on the "miracle Negro." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:00 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
|
gromit wrote: Picked up a double disc entitled Forbidden Hollywood yesterday. It features 3 pre-code films: Red-Headed Woman, Waterloo Bridge (1931), and Baby Face.
I watched Baby Face last night and that was something. A fairly ironic title, as Barbara Stanwyck is a tough young broad who sleeps her way to the top, leaving broken men in her wake. Even though intimate moments are left for off-screen, it's pretty implicit just what is going on off-camera. A frankness that wouldn't be seen again in US films for quite some time. A reminder how film history has had a rather staggered progression (and sometimes positively retrograde).
I have waited several years for the uncensored Baby Face to come out on DVD (in fact, I think I posted a review here a couple years back, asking about the Nietzsche angle). The set's been out since around Xmas, but I will pick it up at some point (and not just to add to the pile). |
_________________
===================
http://www.wakasaworld.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:17 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
lady wakasa wrote:
I have waited several years for the uncensored Baby Face to come out on DVD (in fact, I think I posted a review here a couple years back, asking about the Nietzsche angle). The set's been out since around Xmas, but I will pick it up at some point (and not just to add to the pile).
Here's what IMDb says about its history:
Quote: In spring of 1933 this film was submitted to the New York State Board of Censors, who rejected it, demanding a number of cuts and changes. Warner Brothers made these changes prior to the film's release in July 1933. In 2004, a "dupe negative" copy of the film as it existed prior to being censored was located at the Library of Congress. This uncensored version received its public premiere at the London Film Festival in November 2004, more than 70 years after it was made.
Apparently only 4 minutes were cut in total. But many scenes received a little snipping in order to remove the blatant suggestions of sexuality. The Nietzsche idea is interesting especially given the growing rise of the Nazis at that time. One (German) immigrant tells Stanwyck to get away from her father's bar and its groping cutomers in order to make something of herself. When she complains that she is helpless to change her fate, he encapsulates Nietzsche 's philosophy to mean that you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. And Stanwyck interprets this to mean -- as James Brown put it -- you got to use what you got to get what you want. Later in the film, that old friend mails her a book by Nietzsche, and she reads from it at a crucial moment, and a line of the text gets highlighted ons creen. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Trish |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:40 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
|
billyweeds wrote: Blood Diamond is definitely worth the time. Far from perfect (the structure is borderline confusing), but it's gripping and "meaningful," and includes a great performance by Djimon Hounsou, who was nominated for the Oscar but somehow got lost in the media blitz of his (excellent) costar DiCaprio and the other African-Americans. Hounsou totally steals this particular show, with a memorable, inspired take on the "miracle Negro."
The miracle Negro?? what is that
I thought Hounsou's role was poorly written and he was miscast - I mean he's this towering muscular guy and they cast him as this somewhat physically weak (although his character sure does yell and rage a lot), easily overpowered and at times dumbed down and awkward
nevertheless I bought the DVD because I'm currently feeding a reoccurring DiCaprio fixation - who looks downright gorgeous all muscled up and tan and whose accent in the film is enjoyable to listen to (I mean I respect it especially early on when he talks with his diamond seller in some kind of other African lingo I don't know the name of - am astonished how believable it sounded)
but seriously the movie is very very flawed - despite compelling moments (child soldiers, in particular) - the 1/2 assessed love angle with Connolly in particular is bad bad bad - everytime she was on screen, flirting with Danny I had to look away - it was so embarrassing and unconvincing
I've seen it about 2 1/2 times so i don't think my opinion will change
But I am told the extras on the DVD are great with a very compelling documentary on the conflict diamond crisis - so perhaps it was worth some of my money |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:49 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
The "miracle Negro" is a term being bandied about recently; it pertains to the character of a black man who is in the plot largely to effect wondrous changes on the white character who plays the lead. In this case, Hounsou is the catalyst for DiCaprio's change of heart.
I disagree with you about Hounsou, and Exhibit One is his speech to his son late in the movie. Great acting, taking a potentially icky moment and making it profoundly moving. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:33 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
Well, I'm not specifically saying what the guy in Jackass does is art, performance or otherwise. I haven't seen it and can't comment. My point was that this
Quote: Why did he do it? To see what it felt like, to entertain his friends, to affrim his existance, to share an experience, to create a moment that would live on in the memories of others, as a commentary on the nature of modern society, as part of an ongoing artistic discourse, to test Andy Warhol's dictum, to shout "look at me", for money...
accurately depicts the various reasons artists make art, so Jeremy's comparison was valid. And I think there's an egotism involved in the reasons artists create art, which is very similar to what is being described here. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:41 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
Quote: Art, to me, is an end in itself, not a functional mechanism. Art doesn't necessarily "do" anything. It is.
I agree with Joe. Beauty (art) is in the eye of the beholder. If you think an elephant swishing a paintbrush with his trunk can make art......well then it's art to you. If you think the only place it belongs in a museum is in the restroom trash can......then it's not art to you.
I went to art school with Martin Mull (I don't think that makes ME famous). He held a show of his paintings in a rest room at the Boston Museum of Art. Called "Flush with the Walls." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
