on talking pictures: how to have a better conversation about mov

[ontalkingpictures]

What can we learn about talking about culture from the norms of art-school-style crits? 

[ontalkingpictures]

Celeste Headlee has some great tips for having a better conversation. Can her rules apply for having a better conversation about movies? I definitely think so.

1. Don't multitask. Be present. 2. Don't pontificate. Save that for your blog.  3. Ask open ended questions.  4. Go with the flow. Let your ideas come and go.  5. If you don't know, say that you don't know.  6. Don't equate your experience with their experience. “All experiences are individual” — even of a film, I think.  7. Try not to repeat yourself.  8. Stay out of the weeds. Weeds = unnecessary details. 9. Listen.  10. Be brief. 

[austinkleon]

What to say about someone’s art when you have nothing nice to say

List by my pal Wendy MacNaughton. 

Here’s another list of what to say to a director whose film you hated by Pedro Almodóvar, from his essay, “Loneliness at the Top,” collected in The Patty Diphusa Stories and Other Writings:

See also: “It wasn’t for me.”

[austinkleon]

“It wasn't for me.”

I’ve become fond of the phrase “it wasn’t for me,” when referring to books (music, movies, etc.) that I don’t get into.

I like the phrase because it’s essentially positive: underlying it is the assumption that there is a book, or rather, books, for me, but this one just wasn’t one of them. It also allows me to tell you how I felt about the book without me shutting down the possibility that you might like it, or making you feel stupid if you did like it.

It just wasn’t for me. No big deal.

And “me” changes, so when you say, “It wasn’t for me,” maybe it’s not for the “me” right now—maybe it’s for future Me, or Me lounging in a beach chair in Jamaica, or Me at fourteen.

Responding to art is so much about the right place and right time. You have to feel free to skip things, move on, and (maybe) come back later.

And you have to be okay with saying, “It wasn’t for me.”