So I wrote this thing about TIFF’s Norman Jewison retrospective for my NOW Daily online column. In a nutshell, here’s the thesis:
Norman Jewison hasn’t made a good movie since “Agnes of God” — no, I don’t much like “Moonstruck” — and a lot of the other movies that get thrown around when his name comes up aren’t that great either. But you know how every piece on Atom Egoyan mentions his “Sweet Hereafter” Oscar nominations? Well, Jewison made a movie that actually won Best Picture, so due to the transitive property of the Canadian inferiority complex, that means he’s the greatest filmmaker this country has ever produced.
Except that he is, quite clearly, not. But good luck trying to convince your parents of that fact, right?
Anyway, that’s where I’m at — just sittin’ around, waiting for the backlash. How’s your weekend looking?
Curious what part of Fiddler on the Roof you didn’t like? It’s one of my favorite musicals! *starts humming If I Were a Rich Man*
I’m with you on Moonstruck, or “My Big Fat Italian Stereotype-fest.” Awful movie. In fact, I can’t argue with you that he hasn’t made a decent movie since Agnes of God (though I haven’t seen The Hurricane).
Still, I watched the original Thomas Crown Affair on Blu-ray recently, and that was a fun movie.
Love the Ronny Cox Robocop quote.
I’ll go a step further and suggest that ‘Agnes of God’ is horrible all by itself, save for Anne Bancroft quietly dignifying her underwritten character. Fonda is wrong, Tilly is insufferable, the end of the film is senseless and the “You’ve come a long way, baby” scene insults everyone involved. Then again, I always had a grudging respect for ‘Rollerball.’ It has the virtue of existing entirely in its own logic, at least…
The fact 4 days have elapsed may signal Jewison’s relevance, even within the affected media, has waned to where it’s just a small few bandying about words like ‘genius,’ brilliant,’ ‘master’ and so on. I get the feeling it’s just the same old voices being loud rather then a broader media spectrum.
RE: Rollerball – wish I caught it on the big screen. It’s such a strange, weirdly hypnotic artifact.