Comments on: Charge of the White Elephant

By: Erich Kuersten

Erich Kuersten — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:09:28 +0000

Thanks Patrick, I’m glad someone stuck up for this film against my rant. Harden does her best with the script, but ultimately it seemed just too thought out in that craftsmanship way – like she explains abstraction while admitting two guests, showing off paintings and preparing dinner all in a two minute scene. You’re right that it’s a storyline that doesn’t really make for a great movie, at least not in this bourgeoisie gladhanding craftsmanship format. Sometimes a paint-dribbling drunk is just a drunk. In picking out a safely dead icon, even his premature ejaculations are elevated to a kind of Godly NYC legendariness, which is kind of anti everything the movement was supposed to be about, man! I.e. FACTORY GIRL (vs. say, a hot mess like CIAO, MANHATTAN or some horrifically dull–which was the style at the time–Morrissey film)

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:17:59 +0000

I haven’t seen this movie since its release, so it has faded a bit in my memory, but at least one part I interepreted differently than you did. The parts where Krasner talks about his art I took to be a way of distinguishing her approach as someone who intellectualized art and wanted to understand what was going on, and Pollock, who was instinctive, and maybe didn’t even understand what he was doing. I more or less liked the movie, not sure the story really lends itself to being turned into a great movie, but for me it at least recreated the period and the art scene of the time fairly well.

By: James

James — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:51:00 +0000

I cant believe that I’ve still haven’t see Pollock.