A New Pair of Glasses
When I was in college, I loved Felinni movies. (this was many years ago, I might add.) Who can forget the pure sensuality and x-rated images associated with La Dolce Vida and 8 1/2 as this visual magician worked his way to our eyes, hearts, and down further to our genital area. Oh, those uninhibited 60s and their rebel machines! Think In a Godda Devita, Height Ashbury, Jimmy Hendricks! Go from free to freer in your conduct! How glorious an era.
A friend of mine told me to watch one of Felinni's movies that I had not seen, Juliet of the Spirit. While trying to find out where I could get a copy, I began reading all about Fellini and saw some excerpts from those movies that I found to be so provocative. It is amazing how, when we look at something, with the experience of life glaring on us that their meaning may change entirely. In many ways, Felinni today is clearly a sensual maverick, but he was also a visionary filmmaker who had such a healthy, focused and panoramic view of the world, which I could not ever truly appreciate beforehand.
I wonder what I would think if I re-rented Last Tango in Paris, The Unbearable Lightness of Being or even La Dolce Vida today. (I saw Last Tango five times, a staggering admission, I know!) Will the raw sensuality of these films be the first thing I see, or will it be like having an onion with layer upon layer being peeled away so that my experience now is as if I have acquired a new pair of glasses? Is myopia by definition associated with lack of life experience or can it be an outgrowth of it as well?
Thank you for your minds.
A friend of mine told me to watch one of Felinni's movies that I had not seen, Juliet of the Spirit. While trying to find out where I could get a copy, I began reading all about Fellini and saw some excerpts from those movies that I found to be so provocative. It is amazing how, when we look at something, with the experience of life glaring on us that their meaning may change entirely. In many ways, Felinni today is clearly a sensual maverick, but he was also a visionary filmmaker who had such a healthy, focused and panoramic view of the world, which I could not ever truly appreciate beforehand.
I wonder what I would think if I re-rented Last Tango in Paris, The Unbearable Lightness of Being or even La Dolce Vida today. (I saw Last Tango five times, a staggering admission, I know!) Will the raw sensuality of these films be the first thing I see, or will it be like having an onion with layer upon layer being peeled away so that my experience now is as if I have acquired a new pair of glasses? Is myopia by definition associated with lack of life experience or can it be an outgrowth of it as well?
Thank you for your minds.
5 Comments:
off topic
I get a e-mail list that sent it. not a suprise as anti-semitism is the offical line in a number of muslim states.
It is not just jews they hate but we are number one on there list. The people who rioted and murdered 16 people over the newsweek article destroyed 2 1,000 year old budas, burned Josph tomb and trashed the Church of the Nativity.
The Iranian t.v. is now running a new version of the blood libel, And recently Egyptian t.v. had a soap opera on the protacals of the elders of zion.
"You can't go home again" came to mind -- with all the DVDs from older movies and tv shows becoming available, we have viewed what were our favorites so long ago, only to be sadly disappointed.
But one would think that well-done and classic pieces would hold up even after all this time.
right?
Hmmmm - that would bring up the question of what we view as classic - and my definition is SO different than that of my Kiddies!
I have to admit that I haven't seen ANY of those films...(YIKES -- I need to revisit my Netflix line up, I suppose.)
That being said, though...there are films that I have gone back and rewatched, and there is a mixture of the nostalgia of how I felt at the time...remembering the smells, the tastes, who I was with, the theater...all mixed in with the different vantage point in time of the here and now...more life experience coloring the sensation...the realization of the gap in time between "now" and "then." It is so easy to feel like I am the same person I was as a teen, but then when I hear a song, or see a movie, or take that leap directly back to a certain point in time, I can sense the gulf created by the years and the experiences that have changed me in the process.
Have you seen FRIDA? It was everything I love in a movie...art, politics, passion - and a true story to boot.
I have seen a few "magic movies" in my lifetime... but generally, the magic works most powerfully on the first viewing, at least for me. I can enjoy re-watching a movie, but there's no substitute for the thrill and feeling that comes over you the *first* time you see a truly great movie.
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