‘Sadist’ explanation

I suppose I left that title and the premise unelaborated on in my last post.

My review of L’INTRUS is part of the 4th annual White Elephant Blogathon, which is being run this year by my bud Paul Clark and which I am joining for the first time. The premise is that everyone submits a movie for someone else to write on. Being sadistic hipster juveniles, most of us put into the pool a film they know is bad or is widely reviled. Paul then assigns the films “randomly” (somehow, I, a Claire Denis nonfan wound up with the only art film in the pool). Everyone who submitted a film has to write about his assigned film and publish it on his site on a fixed date, Tuesday in this case.

At the link above, Paul provides the titles and sites for the blog-a-thon participants — highly recommended, even (especially) if you haven’t seen the mostly terrible movies (I mostly have not). Some are laugh out loud funny, including one, by Dennis Cozzalio of MANNEQUIN 2, that’s an even more elaborate conceit than my “Review of Denis in the Style of Denis” stunt. And there’s also this “rousing defense of the Hays code” that includes some little known facts of cinema history, from KC, reviewing the masterpiece OLGA’S GIRLS. But a buncha fun reading available there.

Paul also says yours truly was his most anticipated review — random, my bloomin arse. In the immortal words of Bea Arthur as Maude, “God’ll get you for that, Paul.”

I notice also that my submission has not appeared yet. I can’t imagine why. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest films of its kind ever, a feminist landmark and easily the most-canonized title in this blog-a-thon. However … well … let’s just say it poses a problem or two of perspective. (Hey … just because I accused Paul of being a sadist doesn’t mean I’m not.)