Friday, May 19, 2006

"Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"

Last we met on the page I wrote of commenting on the Fassbinder film "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul." It uses Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt to its best. The actors are merely humans standing or sitting, dancing or eating, sitting in the rain at an outdoor cafe, chatting in the cylindrical staircase, sitting in a deserted restaurant while the waiter looms above. These are characters, Brecht would say. They are humans playing humans, asking the viewer to remind him or herself of the need to suspend belief.

More later...

This evening I watched a little of Comedy Central's political show, "The Daily Show." What does anyone get out of this show? It showed Bush as a comic strip character, "The Decider." I think ignoring him completely and calling him the "Incorporator"--in other words, "corporation" has become the "incorporators" have become the "take-overers." Or, if you want to appeal to a meat-eating crowd, the "left-overs."

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