Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Sentiment is one thing ...

... sentimentality is another: Don’t fear the weeper: Emotional art vs. sentimentality.


Why can’t we ever, for instance, leave happy from a horror film? Can’t the hero succeed and not have his success bloodily ripped away, along with his entrails, in the last six seconds?

Actually, Roman Polanski has been leaving happy out of his pictures for years. It makes for a kind of inverse sentimentality. When I first saw Rosemary's Baby, I wondered if they were going to next take the little Devil and have him christened.
The triumph of evil, I submit, is aesthetically dissatisfying. That doesn't mean a Polyanna ending. You can defeat evil in a particular instance without suggesting that all is going to be wonderful forever and ever. For there will be further conflicts.

No comments:

Post a Comment