[Peace-discuss] Hellboy II: a modern Bosch

[C. G. Estabrook]

Probably for the same reason that, five centuries from now, someone producing a 
piece of art intended for the public (under the assumption that such still 
exist), as del Toro and Bosch did, will not refer to either of them. --CGE

John W. wrote:
> It occurs to me somewhat belatedly to ask why, if indeed Hellboy II is a 
> modern filmic rendering of Boschian proportions, the writers of the 
> movie's "teaser" failed to reference Bosch, to give the film that 
> certain highbrow /je ne sais quoi/.  I'm sure it has nothing at all to 
> do with the fact that 999 out of 1,000 Americans - myself included - 
> would have absolutely no idea who Hieronymus Bosch actually was.  :-)
> 
> John again
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 11:30 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu 
> <mailto:galliher at uiuc.edu>> wrote:
> 
>     [John W.'s animadversions re Hellboy II have the unintended effect
>     of alerting us to some contemporaneous artistry that's reminiscent
>     of Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthy Delights (ca. 1500 CE).
>      Bosch's triptych (now in Madrid) has always seemed to me a
>     characterization of an age; a college friend had a reproduction of
>     it over her mantelpiece, and it reverberates down the years for me.
>     (One minor correction to what follows: the veteran English character
>     actor is Roy Dotrice [not Ray], now in his mid-80s.  About the time
>     I came to appreciate Bosch, Dotrice was in the US with a one-man
>     show based on the great book Brief Lives by John Aubrey, the
>     17th-century gossip who even had discreditable stories about
>     Shakespeare.) --CGE]
> 
>     http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2008/07/11/hellboy_ii/print.html
> 
>            "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"
>            The fanciful, witty follow-up to "Hellboy" is so beautiful,
>            you may forget it's a "special-effects" movie.
>            By Stephanie Zacharek
> 	...