Only a Fool Would Speculate About the Life of a Woman
R ough draft of another heavy, introspective blog entry sits on my computer, and it’s one of those days when I just cannot take my own voice, so can I say instead? Last night I needed a movie I could sit and knit in front of and picked out Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her. I tend always to be a sucker for the intertwined stories type of movie, (loved Short Cuts), and I loved how this one worked, I think because the conjunction of these particular stories is as meaningful as any one of the stories told. And I liked that the characters talked not as people talk in real life but in dramatic monologues, in rhythms and repetitions. I liked that it wasn’t “forget you’re out there and we’re up on the screen as you get absorbed in this more real than real life life” story telling, instead it was storytelling where a gesture can reflect a hundred things and you have to pay attention (even if you’re knitting) to catch the internal references. And I resonated with the varieties of loneliness and grief and then taking that step forward, even though none of the lives particularly resembled my own. Then, too, finding thoughtful discussions of things I was only starting to pick up on on the IMDB discussion boards was another small gift, one of those moments of profound gratitude for the internet, like finding a cool person to go to the movies with who helps me appreciate them better. (Plus, I love that the one thread where someone tries to discuss whether an actress is hot just sort of falls flat with no real responses).
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To Do:
1. Add this film to Netflix queue.
2. Beg shamelessly for heavy, introspective blog entry.
3. Read all of TS Eliot.
<3
number 1: check
number 2: check
number 3: huh?
I suppose this is one of those instances (like with the Carmen/Waldo cartoon) where I’m going to slap my forward with a loud “duh!” when you explain the TS Eliot connection to me, but I have to ask anyway.
I’ve added Short Cuts to the queue as well – I’m not sure how I’ve missed seeing or even hearing of that one until now. I love the intertwined lives method of storytelling!
I’m anxious for the introspective post but am so glad for any post at all. Helps me feel a little less disconnected and looney. I was about to start begging for a post of any sort at all. : )
TS Eliot, I am guessing, is for a poetry course somebody is doing in graduate school, since last week it was Ezra Pound being blown off.
I know there have been a nice collection of intertwined story type movies done in the last fifteen years or so, and couldn’t think of one besides Short Cuts. Help me with a list?
I just can’t resist
“In the room the women come and go,
Talking of Michelangelo.”