bad direction

One of my favorite stories about ham acting was told (on himself) by Omar Sharif (he of the wet eyes in Dr. Zhivago). In 1995, he was interviewed for the New York Times and talked about his tendency to overdo his swooniness on camera

and the director David Lean telling him to cut the crap [e.a.]:

Mr. Sharif is always romantic. Eternally romantic.

“When we were making ‘Zhivago,’ ” he recalls, “David Lean, the director, used to say: ‘Omar, please take out the violins. I hear 28 violins.’ And I would say, ‘But I can’t!’ Then I would do the scene again and he would say, ‘Only eight violins this time.’ And I would say, ‘Eight violins is my minimum.’ “

David Lean was right, of course: less is always more—unless you’re director Jonathan Demme and you are attempting to beatify Jimmy Carter in your new “documentary” [e.a.]:

Forgive Jonathan Demme for approaching Jimmy Carter with so much nostalgia.  … [His film] mostly focuses on the publication of Carter’s book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” in late 2006 and the controversial book tour that followed. The movie is a consistently fascinating, if too long, account of the unapologetic former president facing charges of anti-Semitism because of his belief that Israel is keeping the Palestinians prisoners on their own land [really? is that the meaning of "apartheid"?  ---ed.]

In that case, you want to turn up the violins [e.a.]:

Does Demme overstep his role of fly on the wall? Probably. Note that during some of Carter’s speeches, he places a faint fiddle and piano in the background to punctuate his subject’s sincerity. That’s too bad because the director has done some of his best work in the documentary field, most recently with 2006’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold,” without this kind of fawning.

Cheap sentiment from Jonathan Demme? No a surprise. His best work is far, far behind him anyway. Now he’s just given over to cheap cinematic tricks, not to mention blind faith in Saint Jimmy’s halo and general stupidity.