Thank you for not puking.

There was really not much to see this evening in San Francisco at its film theatres. Foreign Cinema had "La Dolce Vita" and I kind of wanted to "Evita" (for history's sake) at the Castro, but instead we went to see a ''funny movie": "Thank you for not Smoking." Perhaps I intuited that I'd have some nauseous feelings about the film just from it's title. Smoking makes me want to barf. The thought of it and all the ugly accoutrements to it prohiblit a fun viewing experience.

Nonetheless, there were some moments that were actually funny. It's so odd that films have that effect on movie-goers at the same time--but not really. I remember when I saw Monty Python's "Life of Brian" i laughed so hard throughout the film, practically. this film is full of wry humor but does have the fun laugh-out-loud, yay, now I'm having fun kind of humor--often enough.

I suppose it had its social commentary in tow. The anti-hero is a lobbyist for huge tobacco corporations. He is reprehensible figure, but he has this beach-bum-used-to-be sentiment. He's just another believer in the possible is probable and that terrorists are are the winners of the fear-of-the-mnnth club award.

The film was called "Water."

I got some spam from my latest blog posting, so I checked the blog to see if it came out o.k. Actually, I had totally misrepresented the film I saw. It's title is "Water." It is part of Deepa Mehta's kind of (I hope) ayurvedic view of the earth and the body.

"White"

Having seen Deepa Mehta's "Fire" and "Earth," I was wondering if I could sit through the whole of her film: "White." When I can go to the bathroom during a film and not feel I'm missing much, then I can safely say that I wasn't as much into the film than I would have wanted to be.

The film was shot with sets made for all the ghat and home scenes. Sri Lanka was where it was shot. The Ganges did not probably look that clean--even in 1938, which is the time frame for the film. The landscape--and particularly the water scenes--is pristine and forgiving. It is the law which is at stake. Maya plays apart in all of it. I'm not having any problems with the the themes of the film: woman's vs. man's rights, the laws making a widow a virtual shut-in and unable to marry again, etc.

Karma plays a large role in any film in about with without India. The chances of a widow falling in love again are explored--especially when the widow lost her beloved at age 9. This role is played by an Anglo-ish woman. It had me confused. This woman spoke great Hindi, so she might had one Indian parent. But she kept reminding me of the woman who gets most of the lines in the tv show 'Lost.'

The young girl of five who has just become a widow and the young lawyer are believable characters. The little girl does a really sweet job with the role. I suppose my main reason for having some sort of issue with the film was its melodramic leanings. When melodrama was absent, real substance could be run into.

"Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"

Last we met on the page I wrote of commenting on the Fassbinder film "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul." It uses Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt to its best. The actors are merely humans standing or sitting, dancing or eating, sitting in the rain at an outdoor cafe, chatting in the cylindrical staircase, sitting in a deserted restaurant while the waiter looms above. These are characters, Brecht would say. They are humans playing humans, asking the viewer to remind him or herself of the need to suspend belief.

More later...

This evening I watched a little of Comedy Central's political show, "The Daily Show." What does anyone get out of this show? It showed Bush as a comic strip character, "The Decider." I think ignoring him completely and calling him the "Incorporator"--in other words, "corporation" has become the "incorporators" have become the "take-overers." Or, if you want to appeal to a meat-eating crowd, the "left-overs."

All that film allows.

Tonight I had my History of Film post-1955 class. Last week we watched "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" (1974) by Fassbinder. This film is related to the two films we saw tonight: "Far from Heaven: (2002) by Todd Haynes and "All that Heaven Allows" (1955) by Douglas Sirk. I was a bit annoyed by the fact that we had to see the 2002 film in its entirety instead of the 1955 one. I saw the trailers on television for the 2002 film and I knew I didn't want to see it. Then tonight I'm stuck watching in this class. What a bore! Sorry to anyone who feels strongly about "Far from Heaven." The film had two many holes in it for me to sit through, but I did sit through it with meditation and other positive calming techniques.

I'll write more about "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" later. It was shot in just 14 days!! There is so much beauty to it without the reliance on technicolor symbolism. Its colors are authentic, untainted. It's day; it's night. It doesn't really matter, because the colors are untainted.

It's about space.

Last night I had the very unpleasant experience of having to sit with two of my housemates and the landlord in a discussion
about the complaints of a fourth housemate who declined to be in attendance. It was truly the case of who is more of a nutbar than whom...chocolate, caramel, nougat, etc. The landlord, a Polish guy who wants to remain a "roommate" and is therefore suspect of being a Snicker's, looked around the house and found nothing dirtier than the ordinary kind of dirty. Apparently, this fourth silent housemate had called the landlord and complained about dirty dishes, bathroom, etc. Was this a place for a
Toblerone?

Tonight I am thinking about the idea of pronoia. Mr. Brezny's conception of the universe. It works very well for me. The universe is supportive. The universe means us all well. We are living out our karma, primarily. It's about space. It's about personal space and the projection of the massive into the tiny.