Just when you had enough of mythological heroes of the Joseph Campbell type from the Hollywood churn, here comes another one that is apparently breaking all records not just with its faux-pacifist message, but also with its revolutionary visuals. Trivia about the film reveals that the crew spent some time in Hawaai living according to (their idea of) tribals during the day, spending the night at a posh hotel. I found this more revealing about the quality of this film than any amount of crap about CGI.
Of course, when Roger Dean is your model, it should not surprise anyone that the visuals are so kitschy. Wishing that someone in Hollywood would take Douanier Rousseau, or Klimt landscapes as their model can qualify only as wishful thinking. When it comes to Kitsch, though, I prefer the intentional, ironic campy art of Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns to this unintentional crap that people actually seem to find beautiful! Considering that it was mostly Americans who gave us pop art in the first place, one can't help lamenting that period as some sort of a golden age in American art. When I further consider that Hollywood's B grade movies and American pop art inspired directors like Godard to make films like Pierrot le Fou, the mind just boggles at how Hollywood has devolved since then.
Jasper Johns, Map, 1961. Museum of Modern Art New York City.
Robert Rauschenberg, Riding Bikes, Berlin, Germany, 1998.
Roy Lichtenstein, The Head (1992), Barcelona.
Jim Dine, 'Study for This Sovereign Life', 1985
And a few images from cinema's use of kitsch...
Jean Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou (1965).
'Kika' - Pedro Almodóvar (1993) poster
The Criterion DVD cover for Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000)
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