again with the movies. is it really possible to derive life lessons from them? who cares, i do it anyway.
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update: we've just returned from 300. it is stunning and meaningless. you get more feeling for the spartans' life and times from a wikipedia entry. there are zero jokes in the movie (by "joke" i mean it makes somebody in the theater laugh). imagine a gorgeous video game, except you can't get the controller to move the characters around. everything in it is beautiful. you want beautiful beheadings, beautiful jabba the huts with sword-hands, beautiful sweaty leather speedos? then this is the fim for you. mi pobre novia, once she got over the shimmering 6-pack abs, she had a hard time ignoring the lack of plot. that's saying a lot, when you take into account the deafening soundtrack. i put inof velvet goldmine back home, just to cleanse the palate, really. ella me dijo que pareci' y aun parezco a maxwell demon. i'd never make a 300 casting call, but not so bad, really.
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the science of sleep. Gondry. an odd romantic fantasy we watched (she had seen the beginning somewhere). this boy, he's old enough to be a man, but self-centered like a toddler. his ideal: a dream world where he can control what everyone does. in real life, i guess he means well, but he says mean stuff to people. and he lets them down, maybe just for fun, maybe because he's just incompetent. his cruelty sabotages the only real connection he ever had. selfishness is a poison.
i like the boy, and he's handsome and all (Gael Garcia Bernal), and he has beautiful, thrilling dreams. Amalia wasn't sure what to make of how it ends. but i think the boy is just stuck in his juvenile state of awake/dreaming. the girl is sad because he will never appreciate her, and he is sad because he will never be able to script/manipulate people in the real world (though he will surely try).
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watched joe versus the volcano. a joyous movie that she showed me for the first time 2 years ago. remember? remember how it felt, to kiss a person you hardly know but implicitly trust? i know sometimes we all have to just jump. place faith in a miracle, and trust in someone trustworthy. give up things we might want, compromise, let that miracle happen, whatever it is. not necessarily die (as joe tries to do), but just act on our priorities. may we give up what is irrelevant. and the things you have given up, know they are appreciated.
(i agree with joe's assessment of LA: "it looks fake. i kind of like it.")
location is not my priority, and it isn't joe's either. but we all worry, right? joe leaves Waponi Woo as a projectile, and ends up stuck on a raft with Patricia, "hundreds of miles from nowhere." though he has discovered he does not have a brain cloud, he still worries about how they'll figure a way to shore. he just lived through a miracle, and now he's worried about needing another one. Patricia is having none of it. "it's always something with you, Joe" (am i quoting that right?). set your priorities. go where you have to go. don't try, just make it happen. but keep in mind, it takes 2 people to work.
that's a cheesy happy assessment of a cheesy happy movie.
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Malick's the new world, i'm writing an essay on it. we watched it this morning. 15 pages, due monday. looking at representations of the Powhatan (Native American) and the English invaders/colonists. one of the odd things he does is to make a movie all about the princess Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), and then never say her name the entire movie. they do call her "Rebecca" once she starts wearing starchy frumpy English clothes, but come on, that ain't her name.
john smith really embodies everything that goes wrong in the relationship between Native Americans and Europeans. even good intentions, which he has a few times, turn out bad for Pocahontas and her whole tribe. the weirdest part, maybe, is john smith dressed up Powhatan, dancing with them, acting like he empathizes. again, john smith is passionate and handsome (Colin Farrell - "hey," as Amalia says). he puts on a good show, lies convincingly, and then betrays her before the first snow. she loved him completely, and he couldn't have hurt her more if he had planned it out. the crazy thing (or not so crazy thing, depending on how you feel about unhealthy love) is Pocahontas was ready to throw away her husband, and pledge her love anew, if only john smith would be a "kind" man (he wouldn't of course). that's crazy love, in the best and worst sense. to trust a person who proves over and over how immoral he/she is.
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was built on such relationships. they got white guys like Kit Carson to win the trust of individual elders or tribes (Carson had Cheyenne and Arapahoe wives). make false promises, manipulate, and ultimately destroy the mental and physical well-being of Sioux, Cherokee, Apache, Modoc, et al. our government policy was effective and unforgivable.
"I think I might have sailed past them." i hadn't thought about it before, whether i was one of the characters. but maybe you're right, maybe i am. have to get back to you on that, principessa.
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update: we've just returned from 300. it is stunning and meaningless. you get more feeling for the spartans' life and times from a wikipedia entry. there are zero jokes in the movie (by "joke" i mean it makes somebody in the theater laugh). imagine a gorgeous video game, except you can't get the controller to move the characters around. everything in it is beautiful. you want beautiful beheadings, beautiful jabba the huts with sword-hands, beautiful sweaty leather speedos? then this is the fim for you. mi pobre novia, once she got over the shimmering 6-pack abs, she had a hard time ignoring the lack of plot. that's saying a lot, when you take into account the deafening soundtrack. i put inof velvet goldmine back home, just to cleanse the palate, really. ella me dijo que pareci' y aun parezco a maxwell demon. i'd never make a 300 casting call, but not so bad, really.
-
the science of sleep. Gondry. an odd romantic fantasy we watched (she had seen the beginning somewhere). this boy, he's old enough to be a man, but self-centered like a toddler. his ideal: a dream world where he can control what everyone does. in real life, i guess he means well, but he says mean stuff to people. and he lets them down, maybe just for fun, maybe because he's just incompetent. his cruelty sabotages the only real connection he ever had. selfishness is a poison.i like the boy, and he's handsome and all (Gael Garcia Bernal), and he has beautiful, thrilling dreams. Amalia wasn't sure what to make of how it ends. but i think the boy is just stuck in his juvenile state of awake/dreaming. the girl is sad because he will never appreciate her, and he is sad because he will never be able to script/manipulate people in the real world (though he will surely try).
-
watched joe versus the volcano. a joyous movie that she showed me for the first time 2 years ago. remember? remember how it felt, to kiss a person you hardly know but implicitly trust? i know sometimes we all have to just jump. place faith in a miracle, and trust in someone trustworthy. give up things we might want, compromise, let that miracle happen, whatever it is. not necessarily die (as joe tries to do), but just act on our priorities. may we give up what is irrelevant. and the things you have given up, know they are appreciated.
(i agree with joe's assessment of LA: "it looks fake. i kind of like it.")
location is not my priority, and it isn't joe's either. but we all worry, right? joe leaves Waponi Woo as a projectile, and ends up stuck on a raft with Patricia, "hundreds of miles from nowhere." though he has discovered he does not have a brain cloud, he still worries about how they'll figure a way to shore. he just lived through a miracle, and now he's worried about needing another one. Patricia is having none of it. "it's always something with you, Joe" (am i quoting that right?). set your priorities. go where you have to go. don't try, just make it happen. but keep in mind, it takes 2 people to work.
that's a cheesy happy assessment of a cheesy happy movie.
-
Malick's the new world, i'm writing an essay on it. we watched it this morning. 15 pages, due monday. looking at representations of the Powhatan (Native American) and the English invaders/colonists. one of the odd things he does is to make a movie all about the princess Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), and then never say her name the entire movie. they do call her "Rebecca" once she starts wearing starchy frumpy English clothes, but come on, that ain't her name.john smith really embodies everything that goes wrong in the relationship between Native Americans and Europeans. even good intentions, which he has a few times, turn out bad for Pocahontas and her whole tribe. the weirdest part, maybe, is john smith dressed up Powhatan, dancing with them, acting like he empathizes. again, john smith is passionate and handsome (Colin Farrell - "hey," as Amalia says). he puts on a good show, lies convincingly, and then betrays her before the first snow. she loved him completely, and he couldn't have hurt her more if he had planned it out. the crazy thing (or not so crazy thing, depending on how you feel about unhealthy love) is Pocahontas was ready to throw away her husband, and pledge her love anew, if only john smith would be a "kind" man (he wouldn't of course). that's crazy love, in the best and worst sense. to trust a person who proves over and over how immoral he/she is.
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was built on such relationships. they got white guys like Kit Carson to win the trust of individual elders or tribes (Carson had Cheyenne and Arapahoe wives). make false promises, manipulate, and ultimately destroy the mental and physical well-being of Sioux, Cherokee, Apache, Modoc, et al. our government policy was effective and unforgivable.
"I think I might have sailed past them." i hadn't thought about it before, whether i was one of the characters. but maybe you're right, maybe i am. have to get back to you on that, principessa.
-
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