INTRODUCING A SET OF ESSAYS ABOUT MIKE AS A FILMMAKER

I have written a lengthy, detailed, and hopefully enlightening piece about Michael Moore as a filmmaker.

Erm.

Actually, very lengthy.

Being all of a sudden savagely fed the solid content of 24 typed pages, my blog savagely fought back as blogs will do : various technical bugs and problems which finally forced me to back down... I fought the computer and the computer won.

Tell you what : I'm going to do that little by little. One part at a time. Maybe even one sub-section at the time. And, in order for it all to still make overall sense (something I'm keen on), I'll limit myself for tonight to the general outline of what I have, to be honest, to call a mini-book.

Here goes then :

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE : YES, HE MAKES MOVIES


INTRODUCTION : I MAKE MOVIES (Putting An End To The Obsession with “The Real Documentary”)


I - THE ETERNAL ARTIST

A – THE HEIR OF SOCIAL COMEDIES
B – SINGING IN THE RAIN
C- THE ABSOLUTE DUEL

II - THE INNOVATOR

A – KARMA MAN
B– BEYOND NICK BROOMFIELD
C- ATYPICAL DOCUMENTARIAN
D – LOUD AND CLEAR AND SUBTLE


III – THE STORYTELLER

A – SAME OLD STORY
B – SOCRATES AS A WRESTLER
C – SCROOGE AND HIS NEMESIS


CONCLUSION : HE MAKES MOVIES (The Documentary Ends Where The Quest Begins)

SYNOPSIS

Mike "makes movies", as opposed to "documentaries" (for the pro-Moore) and to "crockumentaries" (for the anti-Moore). Meaning that he's BASICALLY A FUCKING ARTIST.

Heh.

Like all true innovators, Mike has roots and lineage. He's the Heir of Capra and Chaplin and that means he tries to get Romeo Social and Juliet Comedy to marry again on the one hand, Man of Art and Man of Power to divorce again on the other ("The Eternal Artist").

But Mike is of course better known for his revolutionary methods and techniques. He didn't create them, but he brought them to perfection : his subjective non-fictional stories, both loud and subtle, can reach up by spiralling ricochets to mythical status, allowing us to get a grip on the world and on our own freedom ("The Innovator").

For Mike is a Storyteller, and the power of the universal Story he bears inside him ridicules the imbecile particular Anecdotes in which the Dwarves try to lock him, because of their tiny, miserable idea of The Truth. He also IS his Story. Beyond Andersen, he tears apart the Emperor's New Clothes. Beyond Socrates, he turns his questions into weapons and tools. Beyond Nemesis, he turns his vengeance into listening, seeing and testifying. ("The Storyteller")

There never was any "documentary". There always was a Quest.