Message from jkeveanos

[Anonymous]

Hi Leigh!

Reflecting on the Ichikawa and Kobayashi films that you mentioned, I guess not much has changed when it comes to the psychologically self-destructive mood of Japanese Cinema. I can name a bunch of other contemporary titles that fall into this catagory, in differing levels of quality.(Maybe that's why "Kamakazi Girls" is such a departure. "Tampopo" is also a upbeat rarity).

When we all get together next weekend, I would like to hear more about Sontag's "Silly dark" theory. It seems rather contemporary when one reflects on the fashionable Hedonist/Nihilist Goth and Gangsta culture. It has been over 20 years since I read "Against Interpretation" (although I remember that I was, as everyone else who read it, mightily influenced. Even if we were reacting to it rather than agreeing with it.)

And speaking of "that invenerate foe of Communism" Richard Nixon, I would suggest you take a look at "Nixon And Mao: The Week That Changed The World" by Margaret Macmillian, which just came out in paperback. Those of us who were lucky enough to be alive and vital then remember just how mindboggling his visit was.

Cheers. John