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Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
Movie

Grand Opera: An Historical Romance

1979 • Unknown

Woke Score
1.4
out of 10

Plot

Grand Opera marks a stock-taking of Benning's work and his life, presenting a personal and artistic autobiography woven together with a series of events dealing with the historical development of the number pi, Benning's travels, and homages to Michael Snow, Hollis Frampton, George Landow (Owen Land), and Yvonne Rainer.

Overall Series Review

James Benning’s 1979 film, Grand Opera: An Historical Romance, is a work of avant-garde and structuralist cinema that defies conventional narrative. The film functions as an artistic and personal autobiography, weaving together abstract segments focused on the historical development of the mathematical constant pi, documentation of the filmmaker’s travels and former residences, and homages to contemporary experimental artists. The structure of the film is formalist, focusing on history, geometry, and personal memory rather than character-driven drama. Because the film is non-narrative, does not feature traditional characters, and deals primarily with abstract concepts and film theory, it completely bypasses the socio-political concerns that define the 'woke mind virus' in media. There is no plot or dialogue to contain political lectures, gender tropes, or identity-based conflict. The film exists outside the framework of cultural-political commentary.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The film is an abstract, non-narrative work focused on the history of mathematics (pi) and the filmmaker’s personal autobiography. It contains no traditional characters, character merit is irrelevant, and there is no narrative space for lectures on intersectional hierarchy or the vilification of any demographic.

Oikophobia2/10

The filmmaker's inclusion of a compilation of 'every house he ever lived in' and the construction of his 'own kind of history' is an affirmative act of self-insertion and documenting his personal heritage, not an act of hostility toward his home or ancestors. The film respects the Western intellectual tradition by focusing on the history of Pi.

Feminism1/10

The film lacks a traditional plot and characters. It features no female leads to embody the 'Girl Boss' trope and no narrative dynamics to enact the emasculation of males or anti-natalist messaging. The film's structuralist concerns render these gendered themes nonexistent.

LGBTQ+1/10

The focus of the film is on the abstract history of Pi and personal travelogue. There is no narrative or dialogue to center sexual ideology, deconstruct the nuclear family, or lecture on gender theory. Sexuality remains a private matter that is not addressed by the film.

Anti-Theism2/10

The film is concerned with mathematical, cinematic, and personal history. This secular focus is not an active form of anti-theism. It does not contain any traditional religious figures, and there is no narrative to suggest that traditional religion is the root of evil or that morality is purely subjective power dynamics.