OLIVER MCGRANE,
Madam, - As a lifelong film lover, I wish to take issue with your entertainment guide The Ticket.
1. In an over-trendy rating system, it is annoying that there is no intermediate classification between "A cut above the rest" and "Absolutely unmissable". The former is faint praise indeed with so much dross around, while the latter should (in recognition of individual taste) be used extremely sparingly. In my opinion, most good movies fall somewhere in the middle. Why not simply a category of "Very good" or "Excellent"?
2. What possessed your film critic Michael Dwyer to dole out an insulting "Only if you must" rating to Roman Polanski's The Pianist? Viewers of this semi-autobiographical film are privileged to endure vicariously the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto, after the German invasion of Poland in 1939. According to an American reviewer, the portrayal delves into "evil's hideous absurdity", a phrase with some echoes in the world of 2003.
This is a mind-blowing piece of cinema from a master craftsman. The BAFTAs and French Césars got it right: "Best Film" and "Best Director"! - Yours, etc.,
OLIVER MCGRANE,
Marley Avenue,
Dublin 16.