Happy New Year Bloggies...
The holiday season for me was about returning to my old love - films. A snug duvet, a cup of hot chocolate and some good films and I think I can survive without friends or food - ok that's a gross exaggeration, but this love needed a gross exaggeration to drive in the magnitude.
So I revisited Tara where Scarlett grew up (Gone with the Wind), also travelled along country roads in Clint Eastwood's beat up truck to meet Meryl Streep (Bridges of Madison County), chuckled hard and joined Amelie mentally as she went about dropping little drops of goodness in the lives of those around her..
That set me thinking..in every movie I saw a bit of myself - without sounding terribly self-indulgent, I hazard to ask..Is it just me or isnt this the way women watch films? Identifying and empathising with characters they like and then juxtaposing their life experiences on these characters and sighing with the same pathos?
Why does it feel like its mandatory to identify with strong women characters in films that you like? Are you in a sense elevating yourself into a glamorous avataar, enjoying seeing yourself portrayed by someone pretty and always unruffled? Or is it a way of admitting to things that your mundane lives don't let you admit to?
I think living and loving on the big screen helps select and dwell on just those things you'd rather see or focus on. The rest is all left in the sub-text, unread and un-pondered over.
Otherwise why is to so dreadful to imagine the ideal couples in the celluloid world suffering their partner's snores, drools, bad breath? Why don't their struggles with reality be as mundane as tummies starting to plop and flop out in under a week after it was tucked in by months of strict diet and exercise or losing a battle against baldness?
Who was it that called films a mode of escapism? Or is it? Doesn't it also alternately inspire and show you a new direction, a new route to get to the root of your problems if you are able to put it into perspective?
It does for me, because I'm the heroine of my life and I end up getting inspired by my heroines..I wait to hear from you before the verdict is passed...
It does for me, because I'm the heroine of my life and I end up getting inspired by my heroines..I wait to hear from you before the verdict is passed...
PS: How many of you have New Year Resolutions? Wanna know mine - I want to act in a play or a street play or something where I train my largely paralysed facial muscles to perform on cue!!! Some resolution isnt it??!!
As for new year resolutions, like each year, I'm happily having none. Except resolving to be as much of me as I can, like I do each year.
ReplyDeleteMovies, of course, provide us with a respite from the realities of what you call the everyday mundane. They wouldn't exist as a medium if escapism wasn't as sought after. In fact so many things just wouldn't if escapism didn't - but that would be topic for another discussion. Again, depends on what movies you watch, or rather want to watch which again depends on so many factors - most of all what you desire. And in which direction you wish to escape.
Why does deciding on a path have to be necessarily be escapism is my question to you? You only escape reality when you turn a blind eye to your situation and prefer to make the world in your imagination as perceived reality, isnt it? Resolutions just feel like a comfortable way of setting a direction or a resolve. Try it sometime - you might just find yourself enjoying the target that you set. :) Have a good year!
ReplyDelete:) escapism and not having a resolution were two separate things i mentioned, not having a resolution isn't exactly a method of escape. agree on what you say about turning a blind eye to the situation. but not having a resolution for the year is me just being plain cynical.
ReplyDeletedirection is important - but its the journey which counts, the end - maybe not always.
but anyway, speaking of imagination and reality - aren't they always relative?
Your post reminds me how sorely I need a break to watch The Ghost and the Darkness and be Col. Patterson once again!
ReplyDeleteAt the prospect of incurring your wrath......if you are "sighing with the same pathos" for every drama movie it's a bit like the ladies in my house watching sas bahu serials and snif..sniff... crying over it....aka the sas bahu syndrome as I call it!
ReplyDeleteAs a connoisseur of world cinema I like your choice of movies especially Amelie (I haven't watched it yet. Cinema is like a window to the world of distant land & the many cultures...there is a little bit of us we can relate to even in foreign lands!
btw...no resolutions for me...
Nice to see you back here USP..:) Hope you have a great New Year..
ReplyDeleteVijay: There's no incurring wrath here...Saas Bahu, great films whatever - my point was that the pathos comes when you want to see your unsaid things in life projected on a huge screen thereby endorsing your feelings. The rebels don't want to say they see themselves in the mangalsutra and enormous amounts of jewellery sighing over something 'not their fault at all'..so they chose the Amelies and the Scarletts to sigh along with. I am also a great fan of Almodavar's works...the women in his films are admirably strong with a mind of their own and a will to do things their way..:)
Yes I agree, the rebels choose a different way to sigh!! I watched Volver a few years ago...magnifique!
ReplyDeleteSomtimes men dont want to admit they cry as much as they do! 2 movies I saw recently made me cry
White Bim Black Ear
El Viaje De Carol
My resolutions for this year:
ReplyDelete1. Start freelancing more seriously.
2. Make new friends.
3. Travel
4. Read a LOT more.
5. Cook new things
@Vijay: Really loved Almodovar's Broken Embraces..That was the latest I saw..
ReplyDelete@Primitive Lyric: That seems eminently do-able..I always struggle with making a practical list that high on do-ability and low on dreams..:)
Resolutions? To change my spark plug once every year!
ReplyDeleteVisiting your blog after so long! love what you've done with it :)
ReplyDelete"Doesn't it also alternately inspire and show you a new direction, a new route to get to the root of your problems if you are able to put it into perspective?"..that it does. But sometimes I also tell myself..that's just a movie/sitcom. It's not me! :)
As for resolutions..no yearly resolutions for me. I'm taking it month-by-month this time around. imo that's more doable!