Ebertfest

I'm honored to be part of this year's Ebertfest and looking forward to meeting all the other Far-Flung Correspondents! Watch us live as we riff on our national cinemas on 4/26. Full list of Ebertfest live-streams is to be found here.

Sicinski on Davies

Kudos to Aaron Cutler for pointing me to this here fine essay written by Michael Sicinski.

Sicinski's point is well-taken and largely valid. Davies' cinema is indeed about mouring a loss, and not about projecting social change (unless by enraging the viewer at the stilted gay man's life it presents). Having said that, Sicisnski conveniently leaves out THE NEON BIBLE, which has the Gena Rowlands character (representing a successful filght from a small-town backwater existence and actually enjoying her freedom) and framed by the image of the boy escaping his rural life by that epitome of robust modernity - a train. Also: comparisons between Hester from TDBS and Lily from THOM can only extend so far. Lily's not a slave to her passion, but to her sense of what's morally right. She's as fierce a believer in personal accountability as Hester is, but carnality barely figures among her major drives.