Cheers!

I’m not sure if “sympathetic” is the word. Even I’m in two minds about this issue. What seems to me, in cases such as Protti’s, is that rigid models of analysis and justice are used – something like match and remove. Instead of seeing the bigger picture, complete with cause-effect assessment, each of these “deviations” is handled as “system malfunctions” and bestowed with a treatment taken from a list of four or five. “What” takes precedence over “why”.

But then, I also think it is not easy to provide a judgment when the responsibility is collective, as it might well be in the Protti case (and perhaps even in teh Ed Gein one), especially when one decision could well end up nullifying another.

The bottom line of my argument is that I feel a justice system could be devised by which kindred mishaps could be avoided to a large extent, instead of going through the same process endlessly.

As far as law enforcement goes, are you suggesting that the justice system should have been more sympathetic to Priotti or less? I posted a long, long rumination on free will vs. determinism but deleted it because it seemed too tangential especially when I’m not sure what you’re getting at, here.

I’m not sure if I’m seeing the bigger picture clearly, but I feel that there is no real conversation between legislatures and judicial systems, at least in my country. Instead of analyzing the root causes of insurgency and retaliation, a monolithic, rigid set of laws are applied in order to maintain status quo.

In Psycho, Norman Bates’ psychology is explained till last detail, making him a mere aberration. That may really have been the case with Gein, but with Protti, it is clear that there is some social factor at work. Now, sending her off to a rehabilitation center, I guess, does not improve anything. There is a Bernadetta Protti made every day. I feel Columbine, Virginia Tech are mere offshoots of this.

And then, after this Polanski case, something more appalling has opened up. Law moving away from being a mediator between the bailiff and the accused and becoming a system by itself.

I double that observation about space in mainstream cinema. I’d like my action scenes served in well defined space. Sometimes with these movies, you just aren’t able to make out where the opposing entities are. Without a sense of continuous space, it is near impossible for me to get involved in the action.

This is a film I’ve wanted to see since I read this:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7764

You’ve reminded me that I never found it, I’ll restart the hunt…

Your last sentence is certainly one to mull over. I often feel that in the past 10 years, American cinema has lost a sense of space, what with the preference for fast cutting, close-ups, and shaky camerawork. Even in the old days, when everything was shot on manmade sets, there was an attention to suggestive and evocative detail which now seems to be missing.