Main?


I've admired the Maysles work since I saw "Salesman" in 1969. "LaLee's Kin" is a fine documentary; I have no criticism of it.

But who wrote these subtitles? Her little grandson's nickname is not "Main" it's MAN, M-A-N. A very common nickname for a little boy whose behavior is "mannish," one I've heard hundreds of times. This same mistake was made in an article in my local paper, only they tried for "Maine."

Isn't this interesting evidence of the huge gulf between our cultures, that the filmmakers could live at such close quarters with people and never understand the name or its etymology? Sad, really.

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Actually, the little boy's nickname was "Main." Perhaps it was spelled M-a-n-e, but as someone who taught in that district (and knows members of the Wallace family, including Main and Redman), I can assure you that those kids spelled, as well as pronounced, the nickname M-a-n-e. In fact, different kids spelled it different ways, but it was always pronounced like the state of the same name.

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While I like the subject matter, and the sequences focusing on Lalee directly, I don't think it's one of their best. It's replete with obvious crosscutting devices, the use of slow motion, superfluous musical underscoring and, most distracting of all, those subtitles you allude to. It as though the film doesn't trust the spectator. Especially gratuitous was the title "First Day of School" followed by a scene that is quite obviously that of a first day at school, with Lalee and her grandson discussing school supplies with a teacher.

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