It's not only condescending, but self-deprecating, which rings false when you consider how the film radiates the director's self-satisfaction from every frame.
He made it his business to break down the narrow prejudices and the still narrower self-satisfaction of his countrymen, without endangering his influence by a mere effusion of paradox.
This is an absolutely brilliant book - daring in its somersault of literary feats and allusions, an antidote for nayone who suffers from the blahs or an excess of self-satisfaction.
