LOCAL COLOR

"Local Color" is a small movie, with big meaning and a big big message.

Ostensibly, it is about a young artist who finally induces a drunken, cynical, foull-mouther, reclusive old Russian master to teach him to paint. But in fact, it is a movie about learning how to live.

Ostensibly, too, it is about the classic conflict between traditional painters, on the one hand, and impressionist painters, like the Russian master. But, in fact, it is a movie about the ongoing clash between societal conformity and traditionalism, on the one hand, and iconoclastic individualism, on the other.

On every point, the author of the screenplay, basing it on a true story, and the movie's hero, are right.. I will leave it to you to see and partake of this movie's bounty, if you wish, but here are a few of the

Ideological morsels delivered by the wise and wizened maestro with pungent alacrity:

* If you are not making a point with your painting (what you do in life), it is garbage (a waste)

* The glory of art (life) is in the expression and experiencing of beauty

* We witness objects too quickly, seeing only their superficial coloring and missing all of their nuances and shadings

* One should continue to paint (do) what one knows is the good, regardless of how and whether it is accepted, for one's own sake if not for anyone else's

There is more, wonderfully presented and acted., simply and directly. Finally.

The movie inspired me to get back to writing...for my own sake, if for no one else's.