tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post3123197788090081142..comments2024-03-29T15:45:04.867+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: A Canterbury Tale – a great spiritual film for the incurable nastikJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-26373183678397127452012-08-31T01:46:12.657+05:302012-08-31T01:46:12.657+05:30Greatly enjoyed your ACT review. It seemed to baff...Greatly enjoyed your ACT review. It seemed to baffle many English critics:-'would be propaganda piece...what Powell and Pressburger thought they were up to is hard to fathom'. (Halliwell's Film Guide).<br />I can't recall whether it was Powell or Pressburger who said that you can't create magic in cinema but that you can build a nest and hope that it may make a home there?<br />They built a nest alright.Toxophilenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-41914627628328945512012-08-11T14:28:48.015+05:302012-08-11T14:28:48.015+05:30This is slightly off-topic.
However I think this i...This is slightly off-topic.<br />However I think this is an <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2184689/Multiculturalism-Nonsense-The-Olympics-victory-patriotism-common-British-values.html" rel="nofollow">article</a> that Colpeper as well as the Archers will whole-heartedly agree with.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-46168905553464251882012-08-07T12:23:36.188+05:302012-08-07T12:23:36.188+05:30Shrikanth, regarding iMDB, it only shows which mov...Shrikanth, regarding iMDB, it only shows which movies are popular (a cursory glance through the top 50 showed almost all are from the last 2-3 decades & anything beyond that barely gets a fraction of the votes as the newer movies). It doesn't have a way of showing which directors are 'trending' or some such social media construct. Hence I consider what the film fests & art houses are showing. Yes, it is elitist, but on the other hand iMDB is probably the lowest common denominator. If there is somethng in between, perhaps a count of which directors' oeuvres are being discussed online (buzz factor), it would be the best, but I don't think that exists for movies.<br /><br />And about modern sensibilities I was obviously referring to P&P in the context of the time they were in. <br /><br />I guess I didn't explain my pov properly.Tipunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-2557664295367275832012-08-03T20:33:32.419+05:302012-08-03T20:33:32.419+05:30My! So much of this discussion is political. I wou...My! So much of this discussion is political. I would only like to make one point: despite the huge profile he enjoys (thanks to the NY Times and National Public Radio), David Brooks is an idiot.mike ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02682166152336094196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-39264511109550419802012-08-03T19:39:54.159+05:302012-08-03T19:39:54.159+05:30If I was going to make an English film with it at ...<i>If I was going to make an English film with it at all, I should have done more with it, translated it more. But I didn't. I filmed it straight and the result was a tremendous flop</i><br /><br />I think there is an assumption here that a film like ACT would've been a Continental hit but was bound to flop anywhere in the Anglosphere.<br /><br />I am not sure Powell is right in that supposition.<br /><br />Lots of English hits of the 30s were "filmed straight" without much translation. The most obvious examples being Hitchcock thrillers like <i>39 Steps</i> and <i>The Lady Vanishes</i>. Hitchcock stopped making such "straight" thrillers once he moved to America.<br /><br />Ofcourse ACT is a more challenging film than those titles I mentioned. But that holds true no matter where you film it. No reason to suppose a Paris audience would've been kinder to it than a London audience.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-51623436620258379772012-08-03T19:22:11.249+05:302012-08-03T19:22:11.249+05:30I think in movie fan circles, the likes of Capra, ...<i>I think in movie fan circles, the likes of Capra, Renoir & Hawks are always popular. For example, where I live, there have been 2 major retrospectives of Hawks movies in the last year. You can see similar film events in New York or London. More than sale of home videos or Netflix streaming, I think these are better indicators of a filmmaker's significance today.</i><br /><br />Ofcourse. I am not saying that these guys are not watched by anybody or are LOST like some obscure directors like Budd Boetticher or Ida Lupino.<br />I am talking in relative terms.<br /><br />A film like <i>Brief Encounter</i> has three times as many votes on IMDB as <i>Life and Death of Colonel Blimp</i>. You may regard it as too populist to take IMDB seriously. But that's the best place to gauge how popular is a film across the world.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-69867387826624387782012-08-03T19:10:02.812+05:302012-08-03T19:10:02.812+05:30I hope you are not comparing a movie from the 40&#...<i>I hope you are not comparing a movie from the 40's with political mores of today. You can't blame for Powell for not predicting what people are like today. Also, not sure about the characteristics of today's liberals, but what you wrote in your second sentence sounds a lot like those deshbhakt commentators on Cricinfo</i><br /><br />I did no such comparison. I was responding to your observation that the Archers are "modern" and "anti-establishment" which I don't think they are.<br /><br />Movies like Colonel Blimp or ACT are anything but "anti-establishment". These are very much films with a conservative world view. Not radical by any means. And I'm perfectly fine with that. Unlike a lot of other viewers I don't reflexively regard "radicalism" as a virtue and "conservatism" as a vice.<br /><br />AMOLAD is probably the one film that's closest to being radical among P&P films. However even in that film, you have that immortal court-room argument between Massey and Livesey - where Livesey's argument emphasises dialogue and deliberation, shuns dogma and is generally pro-Britain. Massey, in the early Puritan tradition (the precursors of modern Whigs and liberals) embraces dogma, shuns deliberation and is not at all appreciative of Britain's contribution to the world. (a characteristic common with most Anglophobe liberals across the world even today).<br /><br />Oh. And I don't think I am in the same parish as Cricinfo's deshbhakt commentators. First of all I am not talking about my "desh" over here. Most of those deshbhakts would accuse me of being a "Macaulay-putra" if they were to read my comments here. I plead guilty heartily.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-45097830977583067002012-08-03T18:53:17.527+05:302012-08-03T18:53:17.527+05:30Shrikanth: in the last couple of days I've bee...<i>Shrikanth: in the last couple of days I've been going through some write-ups on ACT (partly through that link Tipu provided) and I think you and I have been reading very different things</i><br /><br />I always make it a point to see how the "junta" is perceiving the film, as opposed to the critics. The best place is IMDB. There's no better place to get a sniff of contemporary public opinion. What I find in most reviews over there is a certain bemusement at Colpeper the character. However not one person talks about the very real social issue addressed by the film (that of extremely rooted girls romancing deracinated stranger soldiers from a foreign country - a situation fraught with all sorts of dangers).<br /><br />It's this inability to take off one's Manhattan lenses while examining the situation in an English town of the 40s that bothers me. The fact that it doesn't bother most people around me is a sign of our times - an era more obsessed with "abstract principles" as opposed to the dirty ground realities.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-55935868875097090382012-08-03T14:25:32.613+05:302012-08-03T14:25:32.613+05:30Shrikanth, responding to couple of your earlier co...Shrikanth, responding to couple of your earlier comments:<br /><br />- None of these characteristics are shared by the "anti-Establishment" left wing crowd of today! Today's liberals are more akin to Raymond Massey in AMOLAD (cliched, unintelligent and too keen to pin the blame for all the world's ills on Britain and its empire!)<br /><br />I hope you are not comparing a movie from the 40's with political mores of today. You can't blame for Powell for not predicting what people are like today. Also, not sure about the characteristics of today's liberals, but what you wrote in your second sentence sounds a lot like those deshbhakt commentators on Cricinfo responding to stories about some new embarrassing BCCI intransigence :-)<br /><br />Btw, about the fashionableness of certain moviemakers, I think in movie fan circles, the likes of Capra, Renoir & Hawks are always popular. For example, where I live, there have been 2 major retrospectives of Hawks movies in the last year. You can see similar film events in New York or London. More than sale of home videos or Netflix streaming, I think these are better indicators of a filmmaker's significance today. Similarly with Powell, recent restorations of Red Shoes & Blimp & a documentary about Jack Cardiff (his longtime cinematographer) have made new generations familar with their work.Tipunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-47440454435896595042012-08-01T09:52:48.744+05:302012-08-01T09:52:48.744+05:30There's a fascinating quote by Michael Powell ...There's a fascinating quote by Michael Powell on <a href="http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/60_PT/Killers/HorrorFilms.html" rel="nofollow">this link</a>, by the way - it should be befuddling for anyone who loves the film and sees it as truly English. Excerpt:<br /><br />"With A Canterbury Tale I had doubts because the script had a wonderful idea - this man who cares so much about truth and beauty that he has to act for it, even on pain of being regarded as some sort of lunatic for what he does - but it was a Continental idea that did not fit into an English film. If I was going to make an English film with it at all, I should have done more with it, translated it more. But I didn't. I filmed it straight and the result was a tremendous flop."Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-40996344730455580352012-08-01T08:45:45.101+05:302012-08-01T08:45:45.101+05:30I am only providing a necessary counterpoint to mo...<i>I am only providing a necessary counterpoint to most other readers of the film who blithely buy this idea that Colpeper is this evil character who is not letting Juliets have fun with their soldier Romeos, while completely ignoring the realities of the 40s</i><br /><br />Shrikanth: in the last couple of days I've been going through some write-ups on ACT (partly through that link Tipu provided) and I think you and I have been reading very different things. Every well-written piece I've read acknowledges the complexities of the film and of Colpeper - definitely not typecasting him as a villain.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-28657560522769140592012-07-31T23:35:14.185+05:302012-07-31T23:35:14.185+05:30And why should we assume that all (or most) of tho...<i>And why should we assume that all (or most) of those nighttime liaisons are cases of soldiers taking advantage of innocent village girls? What about consensual relationships?</i><br /><br />I am only providing a necessary counterpoint to most other readers of the film who blithely buy this idea that Colpeper is this evil character who is not letting Juliets have fun with their soldier Romeos, while completely ignoring the realities of the 40s.<br />As I said earlier Chillingbourne isn't Woody Allen's Manhattan.<br /><br />Even in the present enlightened age we have a very massive teenage pregnancy problem in the States (notwithstanding all the education and mass media exposure). Just goes to show how tradition and positive peer-influence is far more effective than "education" in encouraging good habits among youth.<br /><br />Again what I'm saying makes no sense from the standpoint of abstract logic. But makes ample sense from the standpoint of plain experience. That Oliver Wendell Holmes line gets more brilliant every time I read it.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-57635587106270485792012-07-31T17:32:23.189+05:302012-07-31T17:32:23.189+05:30And just as I posted that last comment, the power ...And just as I posted that last comment, the power came back on (after this huge blackout that struck half the country today). That Colpeper sure knows how to "show a light", doesn't he?Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-65851352275354576372012-07-31T17:30:42.024+05:302012-07-31T17:30:42.024+05:30A line which clearly suggests that Colpeper despit...<i>A line which clearly suggests that Colpeper despite his tough exterior and moral high-ground is self-critical and understands the inappropriateness of his conduct!</i><br /><br />Shrikanth: yes, but even before this scene it has been made evident that Colpeper is feeling contrite - not about his Glue Man adventures in general, but about having targeted Alison (who, he has realised, is a "good" girl who shares at least some of his values).<br /> <br />If we're really analysing everything deeply (and we are now, in this space), I think there's plenty of moral ambiguity there. One can point out that the very first time the Glue Man gets to have a proper conversation with one of his victims, he realises that he was mistaken about her. It is, of course, to his credit that he acknowledges this, but one might reasonably ask the question: might he have been similarly mistaken about some of the other girls? Might his conservatism have led him to make sweeping judgements about young people? And why should we assume that all (or most) of those nighttime liaisons are cases of soldiers taking advantage of innocent village girls? What about consensual relationships? Doesn't this ring disturbingly close to a certain conservative mindset we see in our society about the need to protect a girl's "honour" without actually consulting her - treating her like an object, in other words?<br /><br />"Understanding" the Glue Man is all very well, but I don't think his actions are worth endorsing.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-36672403024054401692012-07-31T13:40:02.145+05:302012-07-31T13:40:02.145+05:30More nuggets from the film -
Colpeper on the trai...More nuggets from the film -<br /><br />Colpeper on the train: A Pilgrimage can be either to receive a blessing or <b>to do penance.</b><br /><br />He says that when Peter Gibb wonders why Colpeper is in Canterbury. <br /><br />A line which clearly suggests that Colpeper despite his tough exterior and moral high-ground is self-critical and understands the inappropriateness of his conduct!<br /><br />In contrast to Colpeper, Gibb blithely declares - I don't need to do either (no need for blessings or penance). Contrasting attitudes. It illustrates Brooks' brilliant line in that column I linked to - "The language of meritocracy is eclipsing the language of morality"<br /><br />In the same scene, Colpeper asks each of them - "Are you against the Glueman".<br /><br />Alison answers - "A lot of people in the village are not against him".<br /><br />Ofcourse this doesn't mean she condones him. It illustrates a maturity that belies her age. Her judgment of right and wrong is not based on dogmatic moral principles. But in the best tradition of English common law, she tries to understand the broader stakeholders involved and notes that Glueman's actions will not be lacking supporters in the town. There is no love or hate towards the Glueman here. But a genuine attempt to understand him. (Only Peter Gibb in his somewhat un-English dogmatic zeal lacks this understanding).<br /><br />All this reminds me of Oliver Wendell Holmes' brilliant line -<br /><br />"The Life of the law is not one of logic, but of experience".<br /><br />A classic defence of common law tradition.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-11986841080149687342012-07-31T11:55:44.440+05:302012-07-31T11:55:44.440+05:30I think it's important to remain wary of Colpe...<i>I think it's important to remain wary of Colpeper and the things he stands for, and to at least recognise where those beliefs and actions might lead given the right (or wrong) circumstances</i><br /><br />Fair enough. There's enough ambivalence in the film. One of the best lines being Sgt Johnson's when he talks about the Old Butler killing the fly on the baby's head with a sledgehammer!<br /><br />To my mind that sums up Colpeper. An eccentric man but not really evil. Also our perception of Colpeper may be overly influenced by his social milieu - the fact that he is a gentleman farmer. We in India think farmers are an insular lot.<br /><br />But the caste of gentleman farmers has traditionally been anything but insular in Great Britain. It was well-to-do farmers like Colpeper who triggered the Agricultural Revolution in Britain back in the 17th century (Jethro Tull for instance, after whom music band has been named!)<br /><br />Unlike a lot of other countres, the "Enlightenment" in Britain did not emanate only from the middle-class bourgeoisie but across all sections of society, way back in the 17th century. That's what made Britain the first "modern" nation. It is strange that this very country - the birthplace of most things modern, is labeled quaint and "old world" by the arriviste modernists from elsewhere.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-35457478939131446782012-07-31T10:51:02.938+05:302012-07-31T10:51:02.938+05:30P&P films are as fashionable today as any film...<i>P&P films are as fashionable today as any film of that era with similar quality - Hawks, Renoir, Capra etc</i><br /><br />I am not sure I agree.<br />Capra is fashionable yes. Because he has this populist veneer (Mr Smith, IAWL). Those films are quite rich thematically, but the veneer ensures their popularity and accessibility.<br /><br />Renoir is actually underwatched. His understated mature films have been overshadowed by the more experimental French new wave directors in the popular imagination (by popular - I mean the average film buff).<br /><br />Hawks is also underwatched. His remarkable treatment of women in his films (unique in cinema) is underappreciated. A Michael Curtiz film like <i>Casablanca</i> or a Stevens film like <i>Giant</i> have a far bigger audience today than say Hawks' <i>Only Angels have Wings</i> - one of the greatest films ever to come out of Hollywood.<br /><br />As far as Archers are concerned, the number of people who have watched AMOLAD or Colonel Blimp is probably a small fraction of the number who have watched <i>Brief Encounter</i> or <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i>shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-46821751109158625202012-07-31T10:47:22.110+05:302012-07-31T10:47:22.110+05:30Shrikanth: points taken, though I think it is made...Shrikanth: points taken, though I think it is made reasonably obvious that Colpeper is attracted to Alison during that conversation in the field (one of my favourite scenes too) - and there is a definite element of disappointment later on when he learns that her fiance is alive; it's reflected in the dialogue too. Not that this affects anything you've said here.<br /><br />Anyway, I think it's important to remain wary of Colpeper and the things he stands for, and to at least recognise where those beliefs and actions might lead given the right (or wrong) circumstances. The lines you've quoted do show him in a fine light, but one can equally bring up his remark about the dunking chair (for example). Like I said, one of the things that's so great about this film is how it makes us deeply ambivalent about him - and, by extension, perhaps more aware of the dualities in our own attitudes.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-36709166263249783152012-07-31T10:13:09.448+05:302012-07-31T10:13:09.448+05:30Jai: A few more lines uttered by Colpeper which re...Jai: A few more lines uttered by Colpeper which reveal more about the man.<br /><br />Alison: They were a good family. He thought his son should marry someone better than a shopgirl.<br />Colpeper : Good Family. Shop Girl. Rather dilapidated phrases in wartime.<br />..<br />..<br />Colpeper: When I was your age I didn't believe in anything. Now I believe in miracles.<br />Alison: For Shop girls?<br />Colpeper: I think a shop girl has a better chance of a miracle than a millionaire.<br />..<br />..<br />Alison: I pay half-a-crown a week to keep up the caravan.<br />Colpeper: Quite a lot for a jacked up Caravan.<br /><br />These lines reveal so much.<br />Colpeper is very much a man of the world. An intelligent man. If anything he is an enlightened conservative as opposed to some village nincompoop whose conservatism derives from a lack of knowledge of the world. <br /><br />Also this conversation with Alison (to me, one of the highlights of the film) happens in the wide open spaces on a huge untended grass field. You wouldn't expect a sexually repressed single person to have a perfectly normal conversation without a trace of self-consciousness with a nice attractive girl in such a setting.<br />The Platonic nature of friendships in this film amazes me. Truly a rarity in the oversexed world we live in.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-40385104723408018002012-07-31T09:12:24.545+05:302012-07-31T09:12:24.545+05:30Here's a comment - sent on email - by my frien...Here's a comment - sent on email - by my friend Mike, a hugely informed movie buff. Perhaps he'll weigh in on some of the other discussion here.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />Jai - I had to break my long silence to comment on your "Canterbury Tale" piece, one of the best takes on Powell-Pressburger I've ever read. I was fortunate enough to first see "Canterbury" in an Archers retrospective at the Film Forum in NYC, a temple to film. Michael Powell and his wife Thelma Schoonmaker were there for many of the shows; this was near the end of Powell's life when Martin Scorcese was attempting to raise his profile. <br /><br />At the same retrospective I saw all the major Archer's work: "Colonel Blimp," "A Matter of Life and Death," "The Small Back Room," "Gone to Earth," "The Red Shoes," "Black Narcissus," (I took Carolyn to that one; it was the first time we ever went out together) and my own favorite Archer's production, "I Know Where I'm Going." I was already a fan of "Peeping Tom," "Night Ambush" (aka "Ill Met by Moonlight"), "The Battle of the River Platte" (aka "Pursuit of the Graf Spee" ), and "A Matter of Life and Death" (aka "Stairway to Heaven") from television, along with IKWIG (Indian-style movie acronym) and "Black Narcissus." To see them all in a theatre for the first time was wonderful; I went day after day at a time when I could walk to Greenwich Village in twenty minutes.<br /><br />As a kid, I remember my excitement whenever I saw that Archers logo; I knew the movie would be quirky, great, and beautiful. Powell has one the best eyes cinema has ever produced. There is very little to compare to "Narcissus" (I just got the Blu-ray) and "Red Shoes." And Pressburger is always quirky, his scripts unusual in the same way that the work of his fellow Hungarians the Kordas was unusual. He was a great humanist; like Renoir, he sympathizes with everyone. In fact, a lot of the comments you've made on "Canterbury" could be made about "Rules of the Game." There is rarely a bad guy in a Pressburger script. He thinks about humans, understands what they feel, mourns their loss, celebrates their vitality. <br /><br />Together Powell and Pressburger are the most quintessentially British -- and at the same time, the most authentically European -- English filmmakers. <br /><br />In the second part of Powell's autobiography, "Million Dollar Movie", (he signed my copy at a matinee) he details how he became persona non grata in the industry after "Peeping Tom." (He and Pressburger had amicably parted by then.) In addition to the critical hostility that misunderstood film engendered (I think "Red Shoes" fanatics were outraged that he killed off Moria Shearer), I also think his elaborately stylized films were just going out of style. "Peeping Tom" came out just a few months after "Psycho": modern cinema had begun. (There is a famous telegram Powell sent to Hitch after seeing "Psycho": "Congratulations on your new comedy.")<br /><br />There is one late and very interesting coda to Powell's career, a 1969 Australian picture called "Age of Consent." It was one of James Mason's last pictures, Powell's second to last, and Helen Mirren's first. It's a bit of a mess but very enjoyable, particularly when 22-year-old Helen swims naked underwater (the first of many nude scenes for that gorgeous actress).Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-56600225803907656922012-07-31T08:45:15.265+05:302012-07-31T08:45:15.265+05:30Shrikanth: like I said, it's a question of int...Shrikanth: like I said, it's a question of interpretation. For me personally, P&P's work would be diminished if there was absolutely "no doubt" about their leanings - I think there is a moral tension underlying all their major films.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-66927420487980499612012-07-31T08:41:45.885+05:302012-07-31T08:41:45.885+05:30Tipu: thanks for that link. Somehow I didn't r...Tipu: thanks for that link. Somehow I didn't realise that Attenborough was still alive. (Didn't he meet Sheila Sim on the sets of <i>A Canterbury Tale</i>, or am I mistaken about that? I know he played a small role in A Matter of Life and Death.)Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-69904303267476410432012-07-31T08:40:05.115+05:302012-07-31T08:40:05.115+05:30I've been rewatching ACT.
There's one snat...I've been rewatching ACT.<br />There's one snatch of dialogue midway through the film which leaves us with no doubt regarding P&P's political leanings....<br /><br />Sgt Johnson: If the isolationists were to hear you back home they'll be mighty sore.<br />Kid1: Who are the "isolationists"?<br />Sgt Johnson: Short-sighted folks<br />Kid2: Why don't they buy spectacles?<br />Sgt Johnson: From what I hear, that's what they are doing!shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-76632402042169685072012-07-31T08:37:55.996+05:302012-07-31T08:37:55.996+05:30Oh well, it's a question of interpretation and...Oh well, it's a question of interpretation and perspective, I guess. As long as we agree that there is (at the very least) a lot of moral ambiguity in the Glue Man's methods. And not to get too auteur-ish about it, but Powell did have an interest in characters whose attitude to sexuality was stunted or unhealthy. (Remember Mark in Peeping Tom, with Powell himself playing the sadistic father in the flashback sequences?)Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-33835066791487410182012-07-31T00:27:43.628+05:302012-07-31T00:27:43.628+05:30that particular form of concern about women's ...<i>that particular form of concern about women's "honour" is often very closely tied to sexual repression and the potential for sexual violence</i><br /><br />Maybe. But I doubt if that's the case with Colpeper. He may be a conservative man with the odd hang-up with women. But that doesn't mean he's "repressed" or capable of "sexual violence". To think so is to fall prey to the "modernist" cliche - "If a grown man isn't married or doesn't have a girl friend, he must be either gay or....that dreaded word - repressed".shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.com