[lit-ideas] If I'm not mistaken
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:15:01 EDT
M. Sheen, the Welsh actor, plays the 'pedantic' fellow in W. Allen's
latest, "Midnight in Paris" -- recommended. Here is what Scott wittily
reviewed
about Sheen's character's favourite phrase, "if I am not mistaken" -- worth
a Griceian analysis, maybe.
From the NYT, A E Scott writes:
"Paul [Bates --played by M. Sheen]’s habit of prefacing every
show-offy bit of data with
“if I’m not mistaken”
is a sign that, in the ways that count, he is.
He is another classic Woody Allen type, the
know-it-all pseudo-intellectual, and as
such the obvious foil for Mr. Wilson’s passionate,
self-deprecating schlemiel. If Paul ever met
T. S. Eliot, he would spout revised
footnotes for “The Waste Land.” For his
part, Gil cries out, “Prufrock is my mantra!”
Let’s not go there, you and I."
"Unless I’m mistaken, “Prufrock” is a
statement of the very ennui — the perception
of a diminished world unable to satisfy a
hungering sensibility — that afflicts Gil."
Cheers,
Speranza
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
