A movie trailer for Mel Gibson’s new movie about the death of Jesus. Looks promising. To my mind, however, it will be hard to beat Martin Scorsese’s “Last Temptation.”
POSEUR ALERT: “Neoformalism posits that viewers are active-that they perform operations. Contrary to psychoanalytic criticism, I assume that film viewing is composed mostly of nonconscious, preconscious, and conscious activities. Indeed, we may define the viewer as a hypothetical entity who responds actively to cues within the film on the basis of automatic perceptual processes and on the basis of experience. Since historical contexts make the protocols of these responses inter-subjective, we may analyze films without resorting to subjectivity . . . According to Bordwell, ‘The organism constructs a perceptual judgment on the basis of nonconscious inferences.'” – film theorist Kristin Thompson, quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
BUSH ON FREE TRADE: No one can now doubt that, in matters of free trade, the Clinton administration was far more conservative than Bush is. So we now have two huge disappointments: a protectionist tilt on trade and a profligate slide on fiscal responsibility. At least some conservatives are begining to realize the damage Bush is doing to economic conservatism – and the economy itself.
The Dish 