winning an oscar

Network is certainly a work of fiction.  As I recall it's a broad satire that makes fun of everything.  Satire is a strange thing because it generally makes fun of topical items, so that years later it can seem a little odd, but then as the philosophers say, the more things change the more they stay the same.  Well some philosophers say that, some say the opposite, that's the way they are.  Also societies change over time, sometimes it is very uptight like in the 50s and sometimes it is very loose like it's been pretty much since then, though it seems to me that lately we have been tightening up.  I think it's this polarization that tightens us up.  There are a lot of chips on shoulders and that leads to a lack of a sense of humor.

I saw an Iranian movie, About Elly, last Saturday.  A bunch of mostly young people rent a cabin by the sea.  One of the women has invited a woman who isn't really part of the group along because one of the guys in the group has just gotten divorced and is looking for a new squeeze, I'm sorry, for a new wife, this is an Iranian movie.  This and that happens and she turns up missing and probably drowned, and then it is revealed that she was (gasp) engaged, and her boyfriend, who they had thought was her brother, has to be told, and they are trying to figure out if they should make up some story.

Because the idea that a woman who was engaged (though it is revealed that she was thinking of breaking up with the guy), would let herself be fixed up (and they don't even get around to making eyes at each other) is considered scandalous beyond belief by everybody.  And the women are all wearing their scarves and though it is warm enough for the kids (wearing like 1890s bathing suits) to go swimming everybody seems to be dressed like it is a cold fall day.

Well three stars out of five because it was well enough done i suppose, and it is always edifying to see how other people live.  I never liked dvds when they first came out, they just seem harder to operate than tapes which just went forwards and backwards and stopped, rather than having to navigate through some menu system which is different for every damn dvd for no apparent reason.  But one thing I do like about dvds are those extras like deleted scenes and commentaries and whatnot.

This one included some interview with film critics, but because this was an Iranian film, made with the approval of the Iranian government, which none of we westerners approve of the way they treat women, it seems like most of the questions were about how the movie portrayed women, and wasn't that terrible.  You know I am a westerner and i think it's terrible the way the Iranis treat women, but this is a movie for Chrissake. 

This is one thing i mean by us having no sense of humor, and the fault is I am afraid mostly at the feet of my ilk with their stoopid political correctness.  Every depiction of a minority (and I'm not sure if even the word minority is acceptable) has to be just so, or else it's thumbs down.  Your ilk does this sometimes too when they think Christianity has been dissed.  And then there is that awful Hays code of years ago. 

There is some kind of theory that has been around forever I think, that the arts are meant to elevate us, and since they have that power they must also have the power to degrade us, and therefore they should be supervised by a bunch of Goddamn nannies lest we go astray.  I hate that shit.

Another thing that came across was that the Iranians are afraid of us.  Why how could that be I thought.  And then I remembered McCain's Bomb Iran song, and how everytime we have election there are always several candidates talking about bombing Iran back to the stone age.  Well I suppose that would make a body nervous.  America is like your drunk uncle with the big gun collection.

Another thing that came up was how this movie won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.  All the Iranians were so proud, even those who thought it was too racy or too disrespectful of traditional mores or whatever, and are still pissed at the great satan, It was like the Iranian soccer team winning the world cup.

What do you think about cosmopolitan?  It was something I got to thinking about watching the movie.  It's always considered to be a feather in the cap of some city to be considered cosmopolitan, but a black eye to be provincial.  I stole that feather in my cap/black eye thing from Catch 22.  Do you think that's justified?