First Love

[Josiah Luke Winn]

Thankyou for the review of First Love. It clarified a few things for me
and also highlighted a lot of  what I liked about the film.  I
thought employing Doyle on camera both helped and hindered the film.  His
style can be a lot of fun to watch and quite beautiful at times, but it is
so identifiable these days that I feel it's close to spiralling into a
cliche.  The affiliations his style has with a lot of fashion photograph
(who borrowed from who I don't know) also leaves me a bit empty when I see
it.  Recently, I saw a shoot he did for Yoji Yamamoto in a
Japanese fashion
magazine and I felt his style lent itself well to that kind of
context. Yes, I have mixed feelings about the Doyle and WKW collaboration.
For a while, I couldn't work out what it was that irritated
me,particularly with Fallen Angel, but now I've come to think that it's
WKW's use of sound in conjunction with the photography.  The use of pop
music, particularly songs with lyrics, reminds me too much of MTV (again,
I'm not sure who's borrowing from who).  Perhaps he's being ironic, but
playing
with pop culture in films can be  a bit like 'playing with fire' and I
feel that WKW and his ideas could get mistaken for the object of his
critique. They'll date quickly too.
I have fewer problems with First Love because of the clear  
self-reflexivity of the director.  And I'm interested in anything that
mixes film and video, particularly with reference to DVC,  the new
generation of palmcorders and documenting oneself. Any leads on this topic
would be most welcome.

WKW is just a bit too cool for me at times.

If anyone would care to come to WKW's defence, I'd be very interested.
I'm
really not clear on how I feel about his films.  The more I see, the more
uncomfortable about them I become.  


Thankyou

Joss