RFI: "A cinephile is someone who asks too much of cinema."

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Major fishing expedition here. I read this quote, or something very close to it, in an issue of Film Comment maybe two years ago. It was in that little colored inset quote box they have in their front-of-the-book tidbit-y section. The person being quoted was a working French director (not Godard, not even his generation; younger) who had, as I recall, moved into more commercial work from the rigors of his early career--which could be just about any of them.

I can't remember his name, and I can't find the issue in question, and I really need to know who said this so I can use it in a piece I'm working on. Help, please.

Oh, and any random reactions might be interesting.

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

serge daney! (google is a wonderful thing...)

see: http://www.quotationreference.com/quotefinder.php?bys=1&strt=1&subind=1&subj=Movies

i don't know much about him...

― a spectator bird (a spectator bird), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

as for a reaction, it depends on the context in which it was used. "asking too much" is not necessarily a bad thing--but i think it's implied as such in serge's case.

it's an opinion, and i don't really want to give it too much creedance by responding to it. if that's the way you feel, fine. there's a lot of people who are happy to feel quite differently.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I tried Google before, but apparently my kung fu is not so good. A thousand thanks to you, Mr. Bird.

I don't think "asking too much" is such a bad thing, but it does lead to an awful lot of disappointment in re the quotidian nature of most films. What I take from his quip is that asking for perfection is understandable; expecting it may be delusional, if also understandable.

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i think perhaps anyone who really loves anything asks too much of it.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

the paradox though is that I think it's possible to ask too much of oneself without loving oneself.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont want to spill out my pessimistic musings all over this thread but i have always liked that quote--mainly for the implication that obsessive love of art may be a hollow and fruitless enterprise.

searching for transcendence, profundity, etc in art may be a bad idea because im not really convinced there is really anything transcendent or profound to say about anything.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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