Borne back ceaselessly into the past

So, I see that they're making a new movie version of The Great Gatsby.



Casting looks okay. The director, Baz Luhrmann (birth name: Mark Anthony -- Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears), is best knows (to me) for his movies Romeo + Juliet -- the Shakespeare play rendered in a modern city -- and Moulin Rouge!, which I never got around to seeing.

I did enjoy Romeo + Juliet. A friend of mine thought the modern setting destroyed the romance, but I thought it helped get the play's message across. It was an anti-violence play, and if we romanticize the men engaged in swordplay we lose the message that their violence was evil and wasteful.

I don't at all swoon for Leonardo di Caprio, doubtless because I am too old for him.

A few weeks ago, Ann Althouse referenced The Great Gatsby at the end of a post, and I followed her link to the text online. Part way into the second chapter, I remembered the overwhelming reaction I always have to this literary masterpiece: Dang, this book is depressing.

The new movie looks interesting, though. In 3-D, too yet.