http://blog.spout.com/2007/09/12/toronto-2007-nightwatching/ Daily coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:41:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 http://blog.spout.com/2007/09/12/toronto-2007-nightwatching/#comment-1551 Tom Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:26:33 +0000 http://blog.spout.com/2007/09/12/toronto-2007-nightwatching/#comment-1551 This is the most over-rated film at the festival and a complete mess. I admire Greenaway very much, but if you want to create a play, create a play; The story is lost in a muddle of cinematic re-creations of painterly stagings and over the top performances by some very talented actors. The "minimalist" period details only add to the formal clumsiness, and the decision to load every frame of the film with expository dialogue about the machinations of the artist's political and personal history only contributed to the misfire. One reviewer you quoted says “Greenaway’s dialogue begins to turn its laundry lists of historical and art-philosophical item-checking into burning tapers of passion.”-- the key phrase here is BEGINS TO, but in my opinion, the film never comes close to generation any heat or insight into the genius of its subject; Sleep seems the perfect response. This is the most over-rated film at the festival and a complete mess. I admire Greenaway very much, but if you want to create a play, create a play; The story is lost in a muddle of cinematic re-creations of painterly stagings and over the top performances by some very talented actors. The “minimalist” period details only add to the formal clumsiness, and the decision to load every frame of the film with expository dialogue about the machinations of the artist’s political and personal history only contributed to the misfire. One reviewer you quoted says “Greenaway’s dialogue begins to turn its laundry lists of historical and art-philosophical item-checking into burning tapers of passion.”– the key phrase here is BEGINS TO, but in my opinion, the film never comes close to generation any heat or insight into the genius of its subject; Sleep seems the perfect response.

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