I was reading Stephen Thrower's liner notes for the Andy Milligan box set and he uses the adjective "little" twice in one paragraph to describe SEEDS...
"...an astoundingly bitter little melodrama..."
"...an electrifyingly nasty little gem..."
This is very much a film critic-type thing to say and whenever I see it used I picture Leonard Maltin grinning ear to ear, saying "This is a great little film!". The only time I've ever heard anyone other than a film critic say it was when a co-worker once told me I should watch THE SILENT PARTNER, saying "it's a great little picture." This person was a big fan of Maltin's film guides so I always assumed that's where he got it.
What I've always taken it to mean was that the film in question was small in scale, production wise: very few people in the cast, low budget, limited locations, simply shot and edited, character driven, tightly scripted and with a short run time. Is that the general thought there? Obviously nobody would ever say "TITANIC is a fun little film" and two movies that spring to mind that would be considered "little" are GREGORY'S GIRL and MY BODYGUARD for all the reasons I listed above. TITANIC = big film, GREGORY'S GIRL = little film
That said, does anyone know who first popularized this usage? Am I right in leaning toward this being a Maltin led trend?
"...an astoundingly bitter little melodrama..."
"...an electrifyingly nasty little gem..."
This is very much a film critic-type thing to say and whenever I see it used I picture Leonard Maltin grinning ear to ear, saying "This is a great little film!". The only time I've ever heard anyone other than a film critic say it was when a co-worker once told me I should watch THE SILENT PARTNER, saying "it's a great little picture." This person was a big fan of Maltin's film guides so I always assumed that's where he got it.
What I've always taken it to mean was that the film in question was small in scale, production wise: very few people in the cast, low budget, limited locations, simply shot and edited, character driven, tightly scripted and with a short run time. Is that the general thought there? Obviously nobody would ever say "TITANIC is a fun little film" and two movies that spring to mind that would be considered "little" are GREGORY'S GIRL and MY BODYGUARD for all the reasons I listed above. TITANIC = big film, GREGORY'S GIRL = little film
That said, does anyone know who first popularized this usage? Am I right in leaning toward this being a Maltin led trend?
Comment