self-titled: ^_^
in the end, everything's all right
i saw Requiem For A Dream in theatres December, 2000. I got the DVD may or june of last year. Since getting the DVD, i've seen the film 6 times, one viewing being the commentary track. And only once alone. I have no need to see the film by myself, i do however feel compelled to show it to anyone willing to watch.
So i showed it for movie night tonight. Not quite the turnout i was looking for, but all the roommates were there, as well as sean dimo and mike. Only mike had seen it before. Darren hated it. Dimo loved it. And Sean said it was an amazing movie, but then said that Se7en was more depressing. Why? Because in requiem, the characters do everything to themselves, he felt no sympathy for them as characters because they were fuckups. Darren had his back, dimo and i were pretty strongly opposed.
Yes, each character is ultimately responsible for his or her own demise, but shit. Here at Boston College, very rarely do we deal with something as self-destructive as the people in the film, occassionally it happens, but it is usually quite contained and so very very rare. We're a bunch of middle class white kids, going to a decent university living productive lives. But ultimately, we're sheltered. For most of us, heroin and prostitution aren't the next logical outlets. But for all of that, i look at sarah goldfarb, the "clean" one of the bunch. She was destroyed by diet pills, by fucking prescriped medicine that her old jewish friends told her about so she could lose some wait. I feel so much sympathy for all the characters, but using sean's fuck-up logic, i go out to her the most, because heroin and prostitution are pretty uncommon outlets, but diet pills?
So i feel a little worse for her because she maybe didn't know what she was going into so much. Unlike the rest of the crew. It's no surprise that heroin isn't exactly the safest thing in the world. But this is all just sympathy for what methods they chose to get where they are. but i still feel so badly for each of them knowing what their choice has created for them.
I don't live in the city, i don't have drug connections, i don't want them. It's certainly a case of environment, but the symptoms are universal. Marion's the worst of them all, she's a straight-out junkie. From the beginning to the end, her motivation is the high, or, better yet, destroying the low. Her background i'm sure is what led her to the first push: rich, uninvolved parents and a father who most likely is a bastard. Escapism, the need to feel loved. Her relationship with Harry: there's a reason aronofsky employed that split screen scene of them in bed - they were "together" but in completely different places. She wants to be loved, and when harold says it, she feels good, but it's probably the only reason. Which leads me to Harry. i think he's really in it for Marion. His fix isn't the dope, his fix, the thing that leads to his downfall i think is his love. It's all for marion, to get money to get her clothes shop, to make her happy, to show his mom he loves her buy buying a tv, etc. Yeah, he enjoys the heroin. Too much. But he doesn't go to florida to get some to push off with. Tyrone: poor black kid growing up in a shitty neighborhood, he wants to make something of himself, to make his momma, probably dead, proud. his fix is success. And then sarah. To fill the void left by her dead husband, her absent son, her monologue to harry says it all. She loses weight, she gets on tv, and she's finally somebody important again.
The movie wrecks me. None of them woke up and said "hey, time to ruin my life." They just reached a point where they needed something, and they thought they were finally finding it. It is a horrible look at the destructive powers of addiction, but also, i think, a serious eye-opener and something that more people should have seen and can still see. And i'm not worried, but i'm very disappointed that aronofsky's next project is the next batman movie. Because yeah, he's a brilliant young director with simply amazing ideas, Batman will certainly be an impressive technical feat. But Requiem is the complete movie that directors spend lifetimes trying to create. Sure, he had some great source material, but that's half the battle. The next Batman will be fucking cool, but that's probably it. And maybe after composing requiem he needs a break. and maybe he'll never beat it. and he probably won't, but goddam, i'd love to see him try. but batman is not the movie.
so, ahem. let me step off my soapbox now.
met with my fiction teacher today to apologize for what i turned in on monday and then counterpoint and then home to complete BC's 2001 football season with a victory over #3 Miami in the Orange Bowl. That's twice i've beaten those cocksuckers. I rule. And thanks to va tech's win over them on christmas day, i have become the Big East Champions. Can't wait for 2002.
Then i went to the MFA to see Platform, a chinese film from 2000, for world cinema. The movie i thought, was actually quite good. Nothing too special, but just a nice quiet look at a group of young chinese friends during the midst of what was apparently a pretty large cultural change on the mainland in the 80s. I really enjoyed the performance from the main guy, he played the quiet turned explosive musician well. Unfortunately, i had to cut out early to get home for my own showing, so i don't know what ever happened with our hero Cui Mingliang. then movie night and then this and now puttsing about for a bit.
also, "can you come home today?" that was the high point of tonight's viewing. that line is just too much.