Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wrap your mind around this: a trio of experts of various bents in 2003 deconstructing a 1933 film clip and a 1973 TV talk show with those same film actors as they watch themselves in that same clip. Add that the experts are comically self-important and the 1973 interviewer has the goofy smarm we'd expect of that unfortunate decade, and you have a clever structure for high comedy.
But add that the subject for the 2003 trio and, in a more guarded way, the 1973 interview, not to mention the 1933 film, is race -- just as race also figures in the personal lives of those actors under discussion. That's not just delicious structure, it's resonant meaning and substance.
No comments:
Post a Comment