cutriver

Cinema last night: Carandiru, Brazilian prison drama. The idea a Sao Paulo (have I spelt that right? don't know if I can put the wiggly accent on...) prison is full of lovable comedians and good ol' boys who were only defending their honour is a bit rich to say the least. But there's a real humanity to this film that makes it more affecting than most things in the crime genre.

Just been to a lecture by Cathy Caruth who's some big-shot professor at Emory University, talking about 'History as false witness: Trauma, politics and war'. Wasn't very impressed. She mostly talked about Vietnam and, although she dressed it up in academic language, there was nothing there that any cultural commentator, contemporary jouranlist or indeed grunt in the jungle wouldn't have known.

However, she did mention that the US troops used to sometimes drop leaflets after bombing a village which would begin with the phrase: 'Your village has been bombed'. This is almost too Simpsons to be true: 'So they bombed your village...'


Shouldn't laugh, I guess, but still...