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Loving the Art not the Artist

Recently I saw an excerpt from Sarah Polley's forthcoming memoir.  I know that she has had a good acting and directing career but I'm afraid my awareness of her work has been limited to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.  It is a film that I have enjoyed on many levels, watching it many times, and so it was disconcerting to read that she felt that the director, Terry Gilliam, had put her and the other actors at risk of physical harm during the filming. She states specifics and given these specifics I am inclined to believe her.

I have loved The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and one of Gilliam's other works, Brazil (a wonderful updating of 1984 through a kaleidoscope). For a while that love extended to Gilliam, but, and it is an immovable but, Gilliam derogated the #MeToo movement consistently from its beginning. I have had to try to separate my love for the art from the artist.

This is not the first time. I am a huge fan of Kevin Spacey's work but it is clear that he has not taken no or age of consent into consideration when pursuing sex. More and more of late I keep reading that his coworkers on projects despised the way he treated them. His work on The Usual Suspects, Wiseguy (TV), The Negotiator, the list just goes on.

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