The recent disappointment of my recent visit to the renovated Child's--now pretentiously renamed "Kitchen 21," at Coney Island--brought this to mind.
The photo is from "Annie Hall," and the scene is my favorite, when Alvy detects a pompous, pretentious blowhard, in a movie line, pontificating on Marshall McLuhan, and Alvy takes him aside, and shoots him down, by retrieving McLuhan himself from behind a giant review card.
Now, in the scene, they are going to see Ingmar Bergman's "Face To Face." For starters, where are films like this, anymore? Even in Manhattan? And remember when Alvy takes Annie to see "The Sorrow And The Pity," which I have never seen--and maybe never will??????? Because, when was the last time that film was shown, anywhere????????????
Like me, Alvy also has to see a film straight through. He cannot go in, once the film has started.`
The artistry of films such as these, or book stores as gathering repository places for the intelligent, that once made Manhattan a destination place, is quickly fading. When I watch "Annie Hall" now, I mourn, more than I laugh, because of what we have lost
Even the pretentious pontiff type is gone. I cannot recall the last cohesive comments I have heard, standing in a movie line, unless coming from my husband, friends, or myself.
I would love to march out this afternoon, and see "The Sorrow And The Pity." These days, count yourselves lucky if you even get "The Enchanted Cottage!!!!!!!!!!!"
I know "Mother" has opened, and though I am going tomorrow, and will report on here, I have my doubts. I thought I had an idea of where the film was going, but the little I have read indicated that I was wrong. At least Jennifer Lawrence still has her lovely, creamy skin.
Those times, they are a'changin', and not in a way that I like. The suburbs I chose to escape from as a youth seem more erudite now, and Manhattan more like the landscapes of my youth. Is it still possible to have an artistic experience?????????????????
Or does it just all boil down to the masses having a collective bowel movement??????????
Sadly, agree 1000%.
ReplyDeleteThe bitterest disappointment of my life has been watching helplessly as the "sophisticated" NYC life I aspired to as a youngster dissipated before I could get close enough to ever touch it.
Its all but gone now, never to return, and it depresses me to my core. Yes there were drawbacks: the cliques, the boors, the snooty class distinctions. But overall, if you had half a brain and made efforts to cultivate your intelligence and taste, NYC was once a remarkably democratic Field Of Dreams. Even forty years ago, few could ever hope to reside in Manhattan and live Woody's full-on La Vida Loca. But it was very possible to live in the better parts of Brooklyn or Queens, among fellow aspirants, while taking full advantage of the Manhattan Mecca.
Now- forget it. Manhattan itself has been co-opted by a demented tourist industry hell bent on dumbing down every inch of the city into a more-glittery clone of the same dreadful middle-class ennui the tourist stem from. Decades ago, people came to NYC to be educated, challenged, shocked, mortified, enlightened, transported into new realms. Today? They only want to have their tedious, hum-drum, corporate-controlled lives validated, enshrined and lionized.
Drama is dead: Broadway is literally Dineyland East (once Frozen opens, they will own half the theaters). Art house cinemas are either dead, limited to ridiculous midnight-only shows, or pricing their tix close to a tank of gas. Bookstores are on a ventilator, with Nurse Ratched impatiently waiting to pull the plug so she can replace them with yet another bank or yogurt shop. Diners and bohemian coffee shops gone, usurped by places serving $22 mac & cheese buns.
The foundations of intellectualism itself are irreversibly eroded, replaced by mindless social-media groupthink curated by brownshirts with no tolerance for debate or dissent. Lincoln Center is on the verge of collapse, critically dependent on revivals of '40s musicals to attract an ever-diminishing pool of wealthy blue-hairs. Opera? Ballet? No one will know what those words mean by 2020. Libraries? The forgotten stepchild (Cinderella got more respect from her sisters).
Our last hope wwas the universities, but they no longer promote literacy and independent thought. Instead, they preach hypocrisies of the highest order: hard-sell you a $200K degree in law or finance with the promise you'll join the 1%, while making you swear a blood oath to the corpse of Che Guvera and planting microchips in your skull. The schools that still fancy themselves liberal arts institutions and merely churning out truckloads of ever more entitled, narcissistic Lena Dunhams.
The whole horrible cultural loss can be summed up by a single aspect: Gwyneth Paltrow's ludicrously tone-deaf elitist "Goop" site has not been laughed off the internet. She had a brief scare where she became a punchline for a year, then rallied, to the point she and her ilk now control the "sophisticate" conversation. Even that is on borrowed time, because there are no more aspirants being born with a drive to better themselves. Why should they, when the low-life, scummy Kardashians generate more money and press coverage than the Beatles ever did simply by posting selfies?
I can see already how my demise will go down. I'll be like Burgess Meredith in that legendary Twilight Zone. Except I won't simply lose my glasses in an ironic twist: they'll be shot off my head by Huma Abedin's daughter (who'll then burn me at the stake using my books as tinder).
Dark times.
ReplyDeleteThat Burgess Meredith episode scares me.
More and more I feel outdated. But I
shall keep fighting!
However, there is hope. David just
assembled Baby Gojira's Fall outfit!