Films in Review

Saw #ATreeGrowsinBrooklyn. We think of d. Elia Kazan as the man who brought the Method to Hollywood, and who nudged/shoved H-wood …

… into actually making adult films, w’ adult means & methods, on subjects that were more than just merely escapist …

… A firebrand as well, & an ideological lightning rod, or maybe, finally, a big Narc. Look at this debut film though. Before all that …

…—and there’s no dishonour in it!—he was an employee, a most skilled & sensitive one at that, charged w’ fashioning a profitable product, …

… out of a very popular & beloved book, for a great big corporation, which footed the bill for the entire transaction.

#ATreeGrowsinBrooklyn. He was an employee, but this isn’t just (“just”!) a Michael Curtiz film. Traces & prefigurations …

… of sensitivity & style & even world view, are all over the place. It’s like the Cahiers critics said. A Machine, but such ghosts!

#ATreeGrowsinBrooklyn. I’m against this, usually. This is not a declaration, a manifesto, or Statement of Purpose. But I liked the book better.