Sir, - Hugh Linehan pinpoints a tedious facet of media culture (Weekend, October 30th): the "sausage factory" effect of the film release system, whereby every magazine and newspaper reviews the same films at the same time; every television movie programme shows exactly the same film clips; and actors and producers retell the similar anecdotes from channel to channel. Such duplication reduces the film critic to the status of a PR agent for the latest release, while the much lauded choices that are supposed to come from the growing number of TV channels calls to mind a hall of mirrors where the same image is repeated ad infinitum.
When critics buy into the hype, they can become blind to the real qualities of a film that does not match their presumptions. Take the strange case of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, which was promoted with a few teasing clips promising much nudity. Thus, most critics approached the film as though it were subtitled "Sexual Intercourse: The Movie", leaving them befuddled upon viewing it and discovering it was nothing of the kind. In reality, it was a new version of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a modern setting and without the hocus pocus (nobody comes back from the dead).
Kubrick, as well as a great filmmaker, was also a master hype merchant, knowing what bells to ring if he wanted the media to promote his movie. The sausage-factory effect does not allow much time for reflection; but sadly, there are not many movies around with the kind of layers that a Kubrick movie has. - Yours, etc., Paul Butler,
Neagh Road, Terenure, Dublin 6W.