05.10.2008 | burn after reading

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”

Μ' αυτά τα λόγια του Mark Twain απ' το βιβλίο του The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ο Matt Cale ξεκινά την ανάλυση της τελευταίας ταινίας των αδερφών Cohen. Είναι η πιο ξεκάθαρη άποψη που διάβασα γύρω από ένα φιλμ που φτιάχτηκε για να προκαλέσει, μια ταινία για τις ταινίες και το κοινό τους, μια φάρσα, στην τελική, σε όποιον απορροφηθεί απ' αυτήν.



Η πρώτη παράγραφος συνοψίζει το γενικό πνεύμα του απολαυστικού κειμένου:

Rarely have the great writer’s words resonated so deeply than after viewing Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading, a film so delightfully absurd and pointless that it damn near achieves grandeur in spite of itself. It’s the sort of film that presents a story with characters, scenes, and dialogue, but dissolves the moment you grant it even the slightest tick of interest. It dares you to care, then smacks you in the face for doing so. Even its hasty, dumbfounded conclusion, one in which the directors appear to have run out of film or lost the last few pages of the script, is inspired; a rushed, near-hostile act against audience expectation that all but declares war on the idea that movies should be taken seriously.