Friday, June 22, 2012

This Makes Me Sad

Until quite recently, Woody Allen's new movie To Rome with Love appeared in lists as Nero Fiddled; in his New York Times review, A.O. Scott mentions that Bop Decameron was also considered as a possible title. Both the earlier proposed titles are cute, suggestive, and eminently serviceable. Nero Fiddled indicates the Italian setting and its historical dimension, and hints that there may be some craziness or surreality. Bop Decameron also indicates the Italian setting and its historical dimension, conveys Woody Allen's love for jazz, and tells us that there will be multiple stories. So why the change to To Rome with Love, which Scott calls a "fairly generic" title but is actually worse than that, sounding like the name of an LP by a Sixties supper-club crooner like Jerry Vale?

It has to be marketing-driven, and I can just hear the marketers: "Woody, Vicky Cristina Barcelona did fairly well, and that had the name of the city; Midnight in Paris did very well, and that had the name of the city. You've got to tell Americans what city they're in!"

So we have reached the point where the references in the titles Nero Fiddled and Bop Decameron are considered too obscure, not just for Americans in general, but for the Americans who would consider going to a Woody Allen movie. Can cultural illiteracy go much lower than that? (Please don't answer that question.)

As a teacher of humanities, one of my primary goals is that my students will not be culturally illiterate if I can help it. Not all of them will cooperate with me on that, but I do try. I know that my friend Eric Levy, and many others, fight this good fight every day, as well. I don't want to live in a world where "educated people" don't know what educated people should know.

No comments: