Mish-Mash-Mosh
Jun. 5th, 2005 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksI watched The Passion Of The Christ yesterday. It's a powerful film and I admire Mel Gibson for his commitment to it, despite my own atheism and general secular nature. The decision to film it in Aramaic, using English subtitles, was spot on. The one thing that tends to hamper a sense of authenticity in movies such as this - shattering the suspension of disbelief - is invariably a dodgy accent appearing somewhere, or an anachronism of the vocabulary.
The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of an actors' or director's commentary on the DVD. :-) "Ah yes, Jim, this was where the good Roman accidentally smacked the nail into your wrist rather than your hand, causing multiple haemorrhaging..." ... "That's right Mel. And my it was hot that day. I tell you, you gotta admire that Jesus guy for what he went through up on that crucifix thing".
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The St Martins Fine Art Graduate exhibition begins Saturday 18th June at 12 noon until 4pm. It then runs the following week through to Thursday from 12 noon until 8pm, and then on Friday from 12 noon to 4pm.
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The "Beethoven Week" has started on Radio 3. A cracking version of the Fifth Symphony from 1962 at lunchtime, although I retain an emotional preference for the Klemperer style. After that, all of the others feel a bit rushed! The second movement, in particular, I think should be lingered over like a fine port. So many conductors (and Rattle is a prime criminal here) seem to rush through it so that they can get to the good bits in the third movement.
I really ought to drive up to Gutshot and put my money down for the William Hill freeze-out. But do I really want to play, despite the overlay? Live tournaments are not really my forte, despite a reasonable performance over the past couple of years. I find them very tiring and straining. Not a good idea when I have to produce a newsletter the following day.
The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of an actors' or director's commentary on the DVD. :-) "Ah yes, Jim, this was where the good Roman accidentally smacked the nail into your wrist rather than your hand, causing multiple haemorrhaging..." ... "That's right Mel. And my it was hot that day. I tell you, you gotta admire that Jesus guy for what he went through up on that crucifix thing".
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The St Martins Fine Art Graduate exhibition begins Saturday 18th June at 12 noon until 4pm. It then runs the following week through to Thursday from 12 noon until 8pm, and then on Friday from 12 noon to 4pm.
---
The "Beethoven Week" has started on Radio 3. A cracking version of the Fifth Symphony from 1962 at lunchtime, although I retain an emotional preference for the Klemperer style. After that, all of the others feel a bit rushed! The second movement, in particular, I think should be lingered over like a fine port. So many conductors (and Rattle is a prime criminal here) seem to rush through it so that they can get to the good bits in the third movement.
I really ought to drive up to Gutshot and put my money down for the William Hill freeze-out. But do I really want to play, despite the overlay? Live tournaments are not really my forte, despite a reasonable performance over the past couple of years. I find them very tiring and straining. Not a good idea when I have to produce a newsletter the following day.
Other God Movies (Geoff C)
Date: 2005-06-06 07:25 am (UTC)I can watch this with detachment but I know enough Christians to have seen some very moved people. I'm fine with this being a portrayal of a real person's suffering and it makes me wince but I do have problems with the way in which it seems to be shot to maximise ones perception of the suffering. It does relish the suffering in a way that I don't think is healthy.
The best movie of its ilk I've seen is of course The Last Temptation of Christ which is a masterpiece from start to finish. It gives some idea of the suffering but gives a much greater insight into the psychological torment of Jesus and although I know it is a film of a book which you'll find in the fiction section, it is just a cracking film and a testament to the fact that you don't have to keep a film thoroughly true and accurate to capture the flavour of a thing. And of course the soundtrack is by Peter Gabriel doing ethnic Eastern Med stuff mixed with Christian choral. Magic.
Does the DVD of Passion.. give you the alternative of watching the movie in its 15 Certificate version? It did do the rounds of theatres with the goriest bits cut out so that the kids could come along; well the 15-17 year olds anyway.
And if it hasn't got Director's commentary, what extras do you get stuck on? It would seem a bit mundane to have documentaries on making the movie and to see steadycams in the streets of 33 AD Jerusalem.
Re: Other God Movies (Geoff C)
Date: 2005-06-06 10:34 am (UTC)Last Temptation... is definitely the masterpiece and is an equally religious work.
There are virtually no extras to the DVD, but I can't say that this is a great loss. sometimes the actors' commentaries add something, but here the only thing that they might add would be a priest, a rabbi and a historian to discuss the relevant events from a historical perspective.
I'm still a bit puzzled about this problem for devout Christians watching this (although, since I am equally puzzled by devout Christians, that is perhaps not so surprising). I mean, what did they think happened to Christ? That it was all some clean-cut operation?
Re: Other God Movies (Geoff C)
Date: 2005-06-06 10:51 am (UTC)Knowing something is different to seeing it (even if what you're seeing is a fictional representation and for most people it's a more emotional experience than being aware of reading it in a newspaper.
But then your brain isn't wired the same way as mere mortals. I can remember arguing with you at Turney Road about watching American Footy on C4 on Sundays and how it was important not to know the result in order to maximise ones enjoyment. You didn't care and were quite prepared to trawl newspaper small print to find out the results from the previous weekend. We all tried to avoid knowing.
So maybe for you the facts/knowledge of something matters more than the representation of it.
Re: Other God Movies (Geoff C)
Date: 2005-06-07 12:43 am (UTC)DY
P.S. For a list of historians of the age who make no mention of Jesus, see the bottom of this page:
http://www.atheists.org/christianity/didjesusexist.html
From Geoff C
Date: 2005-06-07 07:57 am (UTC)Did Jesus exist. Well to add to the article you mentioned I could point you to similar tracts from Christian sources that prove to quite similar levels that Jesus did exist. But I'd have to be bothered and I'm not because I've come to the conclusion that It Doesn't Matter. If Christians want to believe in the existence of Jesus and in his divinity, then yay, good luck to them. If it makes them better human beings who've learned the lesson that the world does not revolve around themselves but around others, then it doesn't matter if it's complete bollocks.
Same goes for the majority of the dishes on the carte du jour of faiths in the modern era. Faith only becomes a problem when it feels it has to tread on other people and their beliefs.
So now, did Jesus exist? IMHO yes, but I could be wrong. Was he divine? IMHO no, but I could be wrong. The only people to distrust are those who are so convinced they are right that they force their answers on the rest of us.
Pretty morbid stuff (Jonathan P)
Date: 2005-06-06 11:35 am (UTC)I hardly ever find myself in a church either, but not long ago I attended a wedding here, in a cute little church on a hilltop overlooking the sea. Inside, the view was spoiled by all the crucifixion scenes scattered around the walls. When I was young I just didn't take it in, but now it strikes me as morbid and sick. I've never been religious, but I seem to be getting less tolerant of religion as I get older.
I was also reminded of the rather contrived scene at the end of Chapter Six in Colin Kapp's Patterns of Chaos (1970), where the hero (despite enduring exquisite pain at the time) finally gets the joke at the heart of the Seminary of the Sacred Relic. The Sacred Relic, treated with great reverence by a strict religious cult, is a cross-eyed teddy bear. The cult's motto: "Gladly my cross I'd bear."
Beethoven Week (Jonathan P)
Date: 2005-06-07 11:28 am (UTC)Apparently the Beethoven Experience week has been hailed by many. I find the enthusiasm surprising. F'rinstance, however much one liked eggs, one wouldn't want a solid week of boiled eggs for breakfast, egg sandwich for lunch and plain omelette for dinner. Admittedly Beethoven isn't my favourite composer anyway but I wouldn't relish a week of nothing but Faure or Tschaikovsky either, much as I like them. However, I have the listener's easy remedy - switch off radio.