The Contenders:
The Cruel Sea
From Here to Eternity (winner)
Lili
Roman Holiday
Shane
Showing posts with label Lili. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lili. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2018
Friday, January 13, 2017
Friday, June 27, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Lili
Format: DVD from Geneseo Public Library through interlibrary loan on laptop. 
I don’t have a problem with cute. It’s just that I’m not under the impression that naivety equates with cute. That’s the central conceit of Lili. At some point, at least in my opinion, naivety plays like stupidity, and I can’t find that interesting at all. I admit there’s a fine line to walk here. If the goal was simply innocence, the filmmakers went far beyond that with our title character. I’m certain the world is full of people who look at the wide-eyed, lost lamb appearance of Leslie Caron and have their hearts melt. I’m not one of those people.
On top of this problem is the fact that a massive amount of this film deals with puppets. I don’t like puppets. I’m not scared of them or unnerved by them and I don’t actively hate them; I just don’t particularly like them. These puppets play into the singular naivety of our title character, too, because she talks to them and sings with them. It’s like Rain Man goes to the carnival. I want to be clear on this—it’s a childlike quality that is fine in children and obnoxious in anyone of a double-digit age. It’s not specifically stupidity or lack of education, but an apparent inability to consider others as separate entities. In the world of our character Lili (played by Leslie Caron), everyone is interested in what she is because she is interested in it. Everyone knows what she knows because she knows it. It’s like she missed that stage in development where we learn that other people have different perspectives and experiences that we do. Again, I find it difficult (to put it mildly) to find that endearing.
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