From One Reader to Another
To the Editor:
In her letter [“Letters,” June 1962] attacking Harris Dienstfrey’s review of Judgment at Nuremberg (or is she attacking Mr. Dienstfrey?), Lili Artel chastises Mr. Dienstfrey for not knowing that a match cut (from the scene of coffee being poured into a demitasse cup to the scene of coffee being poured into a paper cup) is a transitional technique used in film to move from one scene to another. As I recall the review, what Mr. Dienstfrey objected to was the use of this technique to imply an internal relationship between the two scenes when no such relationship was warranted. Mr. Dienstfrey correctly objected to the meretricious use of technical tricks to make it appear that something significant has been said when, in fact, nothing has been presented other than the technical device itself. I’m afraid it is Mrs. Artel who has shown chutzpah in criticizing a critic without reflecting on what the critic is trying to say.
Martin Weinberger
New York City
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