Cinema Is Everything Other Than Cinema

A thought and sentence that got too long for a Facebook status update:

I was going to read a library copy of Richard Brody's big book on Godard, but after skimming the chapter on Contempt (and what passes for a section on Tout Va Bien), and finding the author has neither the interest nor ability to "read" the movies with any accuracy, doesn't bother to check if the shots he is describing actually exist in the films as he is describing them, and apparently thinks the meaning of movies is entirely based on the emotional, psychological, and social events surrounding their shooting . . . I will be perfectly happy to return the book unread, and not give it, the author, nor any of his opinions, any further thought.

(once upon a time, I would have finished any book on film, especially a rare big one that deals with someone I admire, but now I find I frequently seem to know a lot more than the authors, time is a lot more limited, and I have happily left behind the old compulsion to finish everything begun . . . and I recommend this attitude immensely)