June 10, 2008
Balderdash/Bedwetting
“…to dispute the SFMoma’s blog: it not at all like climbing Mount Everest in the least, it’s actually more like watching a super long, super German mini-series. Who falls asleep in the middle of climbing a mountain: not a lot of people. Who falls asleep while watching a super long, super German miniseries: a lot of people.”
Comments (3)
Oh how I wish I could be there falling asleep with you all!
At the risk of confessing to a lowbrow lifestyle, I thought of your group project while watching 30 Rock the other night. The Alec Baldwin character, Jack Donaghy, is in his office watching black-and-white footage of 1930s-style workers on an assembly line at a tire factory. A voice-over in a German accent says flatly: “The machine is mankind’s madness and disfigurement. Industry castrates Art.” Jack turns to his assistant and says: “Turn it off, I can’t watch anymore of these German sitcoms.”
I think that when it first came to US theaters in the 80s, it was sometimes screened in one go, from 7pm till lunchtime the following day. I quite like the idea of that, mainly just for the sense of event. Obviously it was originally meant to be shown one hour a week for three months. That builds expectation and discussion between episodes — the way mini-series do, or used to — but only first time around. This time, Susan Oxtoby, at the PFA, and I decided to show it in different ways so as to give people more options.
I’m on the other side. Wishing the entire thing were being shown in two days, or as PFA is doing, on 4 consecutive nights.
Marathons do not dilute so well.