Kitsch? Edelkitsch?
Dat zijn termen die ik niet precies bij deze film vond passen, maar misschien weet ik niet goed wat kitsch is.
Ik heb even op
wikipedia gekeken en vond daar een stukje waarbij Milan Kundera geciteerd wordt, die nota bene het boek heeft geschreven dat in de verfilming zo'n beetje de beroemdste film van Kaufman is geworden ('the unbearable lightness of being):
Other theorists over time have also linked kitsch to totalitarianism. The Czech writer Milan Kundera, in his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), defined it as "the absolute denial of shit." His argument was that kitsch functions by excluding from view everything that humans find difficult to come to terms with, offering instead a sanitised view of the world in which "all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions."
In its desire to paper over the complexities and contradictions of real life, kitsch, Kundera suggested, is intimately linked with totalitarianism. In a healthy democracy, diverse interest groups compete and negotiate with one another to produce a generally acceptable consensus; by contrast, "everything that infringes on kitsch," including individualism, doubt, and irony, "must be banished for life" in order for kitsch to survive. Therefore, Kundera wrote, "Whenever a single political movement corners power we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch."
For Kundera, "Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch."
Nou ja, wat kitsch ook is, ik vond Henry and June vooral over-pretentieus. Gek eigenlijk, want de film gáát nergens over en tja, als een film amper plot heeft maar wél veel sex, waar lijkt het dan op? Precies, op porno, maar dan saaie (of is porno altijd saai? Eerlijk gezegd weet ik dat niet).
