An Obscure View

It’s hard work watching ‘The View’. There I was on Monday night, the minimum requirements at the ready: pen and paper for note taking, thesaurus just in case and bottle of wine to wash the waffle down.
This week two films were reviewed. Lofty language was used to tell me the cinematography was profound, the characterisation sublime, the interpretation of the novel insightful. My head spun with the adjectives (the notebook and thesaurus came in handy). At the end of it my vocabulary was enhanced but I remained sadly in the dark on two points: Did they enjoy it? Should I spend 10 euro and a Sunday afternoon going to see it?
The predictable format lends itself to this obscurity. The panal comprises of: an eccentric individual, usually female; an arts related person who hasn’t done anything much of late and you’re never too sure why he’s there and novelist/poet/musician/journalist, usually male and full of their own importance. The rules are: eccentric lady loves the obscure stuff, novelist may like the mainstream but his ego won’t allow him to admit it, while the other guy disagrees with them both in order to raise his media profile. So by the end of the discussion, arts woman feels self-satisfied, the novelist smug and the other guy important. And the viewer? Confused.
Arts review programmes always veer towards the pretentious, and in a way you have to run with it. It’s a bit like complaining about Bertie, we grumble, but if he cleaned up his act it wouldn’t be the same. However, the cinema, unlike alternative dance, modern art or arguably theatre, is an art form enjoyed and discussed by the majority from all walks of life. The average Joe who is still awake at 11pm on Monday night deserves to watch an understandable film review on the only show of this type shown on RTE. The only possible way of attaining this is to invite a member of the public as a guest on the show to offer their enlightened view, the only qualification needed being a valid TV license.
Until this happens, ‘The View’ will remain obscured by images of it’s own grandeur and this film goer will be sticking with RottenTomatoes.com in the future.