| And even 2004 is a long, long time ago... | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 06:46 am EDT 05/14/18 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 06:44 am EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Speaking of Auntie Mame ... - GatorMan 11:39 pm EDT 05/13/18 | |
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| The world was very different in 2004. The cultural embrace of someone like Mame was still fairly nostalgic. But so many pieces of Mame's story, including the inherent classism and racism lite are just harder to find charming. She's a rich woman who throws parties for bohemians and iconoclasts, loses her money, can't hold a job and must marry to sustain her elite lifestyle. She loathes the Upsons, but Patrick still basically ends up another privileged white man. It's not as if Patrick ever applies any of Mame's supposedly life-altering philosophy other than showing the Upsons the door, finally. It's a long journey to get to its foregone conclusion. Without the period specific feel of the film, and Russell, the humor floats around various points of discomfort, like Mame's need for full-time servants just to survive, one a desexualized Asian male caricature. (She launches Agnes, though in a date rape-y way by today's standards, but her helpers are expected to stay exactly where they are -- waiting on her -- once she's flush again.) Nowhere in the play does Mame have any reckoning about the world around her and her need to change with it other than to finally put down antisemitism, the one moral stand she takes. It's an important one, but conveniently, allows Mame to function in a world without any visible Jewish presence. I love the Russell movie, and ignore all of the above when I watch it. But it's frozen in time, we accept the film as a product of its era (the 50s), and have nostalgia both for the movie and our own youth when we first got to know Mame. In 2018, she feels like a relic, if an iconic one. Re-introducing her story now feels pointless, especially with the perfect iteration -- at least of her character -- preserved forever. |
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| Previous: | re: Auntie Mame in TWO acts ... - flaguy 07:34 am EDT 05/14/18 |
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