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no, i don't actually have an uncontrollable urge to exterminate teenage girls
Hi, i can be boring sometimes. And i often sound evil to conceal life's banalities. But i really am a kind and peace-loving creature. That despite the URL. |
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got neither analytical insights nor flashy pictures to offer just trying to make the mundane a little less mundane! tagboard
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   i love my arty movies this way - basked in glamour, rendered through rose-tinted glasses, elevated by dry offbeat wit and equally importantly, free of pretensions and excesses. this gem of a woody allen movie, vicky cristina barcelona, is truly a romantic comedy in a higher league. there's a beautiful free spirit that envelopes the amorous entanglements and knotty liaisons, and a gorgeous backdrop in the form of barcelona that accentuates some more. far too often have descriptions the likes of 'beautiful free spirit' been tacitly synonymous to slutty and promiscuous behaviour, but really, i love how love is portrayed as a free-spirited pursuit that should rightfully be independent of structures, formula, or labels. as cristina would have it, why should erm, pansexual polyamory, be resisted if she feels more nourished than divided by it? especially not, when pansexual polyamory can take the aphrodisaical form of javier bardem, penelope cruz and scarlet johansson making out in the dark room, right? i think that really is the message at the heart of the film, that, and the brutally cynical yet equally true notion that most beautiful form of love is that in its transient and unfulfilled state. 人生因缺憾而唯美，而只有缺憾才能够反衬出人生中所谓美好事物的存在价值。if i were an 8-5 clerk, then i surely would not hold precious saturday escapades as dear to my heart as i do right now, would i? anyway, i believe a thoroughly fulfilled relationship is one that gears dangerously towards hitting the plateau of satiation, after which passion dissipates and committment takes over like an emotionless tide that necessitates and compels the disregard of that dearth of passion and even love. which is why marriage would necessarily be seen as a superfluous, even coldly contractal committment, IF one were to subscribe to the messages in the movie. in the eyes of serial conservationists, this film probably comes across as moral poison beneath its (this they still won't be able to deny) gorgeous facade of gorgeous people playing out their gorgeous entanglements against a gorgeous barcelona - what with its condoning if not glamourizing of polyamory, romantic and sexual spontaniety, as well as cynical take on marriage (even old folks end up cheating on their spouses in the film), but once again, if one is able to attain nourishment by such an admittedly wayward condition without having to hurt anyone, why should they not be free in their love? why, i'm surprised this movie's been rated M18-Mature Theme instead of R21-Against Pro-Family Values and Birthrate Boosting Policies. anyway, i've never been able to figure out the point behind this 'mature content' catchphrase that MDA is hooked on these days. this is as vague and directionless as consumer advices can go. do the officials think of it as an effective replacement of otherwise controversial descriptors that could make censoring self-defeating? point to note: censorship has ALWAYS been self-defeating, at least to me, at least in very sneakable cinemas scattered around town. but i digress. in a way, cristina, marie elena and juan antonio are all projections of many of our wildest ideals about living - living for yourself, and living for the moment, without burdening thoughts about schoolwork, projects, being enslaved, and the like. like attraction should be blind to anything other than that intense affinity that drew you to the person in the first place. like we should cycle gleefully down to the countryside to pick fresh blackberries for tea if we feel like it. who wouldn't want to pride themselves by the welcoming and no holds barred free spirit of cristina? but of course, we think big, dream big, and proceed to wake up to face the inevitable. this is where we are, where we face enormous expectations, where we grudgingly but surely conform, and where propositions to engage in a ménage à trois do not spontaneously pop up during dinner conversations. and this is why i feel this movie deserves to be billed as a romantic comedy in a different league. it goes well beyond self-indulgent artistic excesses (pointless reverse chronology anyone?) to provoke me into rethinking the pillars of the most beautiful state and form of love, for one. and that. is definitely not - customary, ritualistic or obligatory vows to committment that eventually ring uglily hollow. |