Fan Mail II
I seem to have a large fan base on WebTV for some reason. Two out of the four or five e-mails I’ve gotten have been from there. Should I be worried?
This one had some very very bad WebTV signature down there, something that would melt ordinary browsers. I’ve snipped it. Besides that, the formatting is more or less preserved, complete with bizarre indentation and line breaks.
From xxx@webtv.net Wed May 26 18:54:55 1999
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 19:32:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: xxx
To: Cheng-Jih Chen
Subject: Re: Retrospective: The Ten Commandments (1956)Hi Cheng.
Just a note to say I enjoyed your elucidation on the Ten Commandments.
Given the time it was made and all other
“deficiencies”….it still is a good film, as you have noted.
I have it on hand and pop it out now and
then and don’t get tired of it. I LOVE..a lot
of the old movie-making; ableit to some “
old fashioned” or dated. Not to say some
are not or were’nt “stinkers”…
Yet overall, there is a particular quality
which would certainly be a reflection of the director and I find that I
do not find this particular intangible quality amongst
our present day directors…or if they do exist…they are few of
course. I mean…there are a few today whom I admre.
I recently was in touch with someone online about an “oldie” which I
love…going
way back to the 30’s….The Last Days of
Pompeii. Damn! For those days the f/xs
were darned good considering…
What I was getting to in my mention of this is the person I was in
touch with gave
a review and a good one on it…yet stated
that some of the acting might be considered “hammy”…in particular that
of
the star, Preston Foster.
Reading your critique of TC…you mention the “overacting”…and
mention the
three women on the rock in the sea-parting sequence…
Well….strange as it sounds….I don’t mind that and “understand” the
over-exxagerated gestures, etc. as I did
when I alluded to the “hammy” acting above.
By this, I mean that I feel what we perceive as being “overdone”..might
well
be how people appeared in those times.
In fact this might be closer to the truth of
their gestures, mannerisms, etc…speaking
as such than what we would like them to
be in our contemporary world.
Just a look at what we have as “evidence
” from within our own century..that is some early movies whereby one can
see
the body language….manner of speech,
facial expressions, etc…are different from
how we express ourselves today.
Take that thought and move it back a few
thousand years and imagine how “dramatic” the ancients were in this
regard.
When I say now I “understand’ now, is
that living abroad for awhile some years
ago and meeting some illiterate, unspoiled
wonderful people…who did not have contact with the ‘modern world”…I
saw these same types of gestures..facial expressions..manner of
speaking, etc.
which we now might call “overacting” or
“hammy” by today’s standards, whether in
real life or on film..
Wow! Did not mean to carry on like this
but for what it’s worth..just thought I would
pass it on for you to consider (or not!).
Moral of the story….hey…I guess many of our ancestors did
“overact”!
BTW…I thought Anne Baxter did an excellent job, as Yul did…and
Heston did
carry it off okay….
Take care….and looking forward to more of your reviews…
Peace..
Jack