Michael’s Reviews > Moments That Made the Movies > Status Update

“…[R]e-encountering someone you loved once and realizing that the effort of forgetting, condemning and turning bitter has had very little effect. But are you falling in love with the person or are you falling for the past, your own passage in time, and the mere idea of love? When you look at an old movie do you really re-examine it…? [O]r are you falling in line with a version of yourself and your pleasure?”

“Dietrich was never really a great actress. When asked to act she lost confidence. If told to exist she became a lighthouse summoning every sailor to her rocks. So truly the moment is weightier than the film and more enduring. But these days people like to take their films in bits and pieces — video allowed that — so one day it may be that no one makes full movies any longer, just arresting moments.”