Woody Allen is a great writer and a great New Yorker and this movie is the proof of it. He has put together a film with various levels of meaning, driven mostly by his sexist humor and his intellectual esprit. The movie opens with a tennis ball hitting the top of a net and the voice of the main character that states “for a split second it can either go forward or fall back”. This is the key image to the, we want to say higher meaning of the movie?, which automatically serves Chris Wilton’s the philosophical view :“I’d rather be lucky than good”. Luck and goodness are therefore used in the entire movie as a dualism that seems to be always in front of Chris’ destiny. Should he take the boring-wealthy job his filthy rich girlfriend offers him (good), or should he fall in the joyful and sexy unknown (luck)? In order to answer this question the viewer is forced to keep in mind all the stereotypes of the British society (the movie is set between London), which found the backbone of the movie. The side characters, the English “haut bourgeoisie”, remind the viewer of a sketch stolen from a late nineteenth century drawing room comedy; they drink champagne, eat caviar and most importantly they make nasty remarks, that show their fascinating snobbish mentality. As a matter of fact, the two main characters, Chris and Nola are the only ones who don’t belong to that upper class, but nonetheless they strive to arrive there. They are the refreshed social climbers who would do anything.
Yet there is a burden for both of them that slows down their climb, that is each other, in view of the fact that obviously they have an affair that ends up with Nola being knocked up and threatening to tell the main character’s wife with this “beautiful” announcement. At this point Chris sees crumbling in front of his eyes what he has achieved: his success, his house, the respect of the family entered by marrying the sweet, but dumb, rich girl and not last his personal driver. Thus he has to choose the woman who he wants to stay with. On the one hand there is Chloe that represent control over life, stability and certainty, on the other there is the very lustful loser Nola who stands for unpredictability and precariousness.
Till here it is a quite ordinary story, however the plot evolves in a way the viewer wouldn’t expect. Even though “Crime and Punishment” is often cited during the film, there is nothing more divergent from the book. Indeed at this point Chris should feel guilty because he literally fucks up the whole situation, but he doesn’t at all, on the contrary he feels like the victim of the awful prank “luck” has played on him (just think of the irony about the pregnancy of Nola caused by one unprotected sex and the never ending failed attempts of the wife to be pregnant), he feels betrayed by it so he wants to be great in resolving it on his own. For this reason he decides to kill Nola.
After the killing he sees the Begermanian phantom of Nola that reminds him he will be caught because he made too many mistakes. To that statement Chris replies with the best lines of the entire movie “When the time came, I could pull the trigger. You can push the guilt under the rug and go on, you have to, or else it overwhelms you”. “It would be fitting if I were unpunished, at least there would be a small sign of justice, some small measure of hope for a possibility of meaning”. The Justice would represent the reward of his believing in luck.
In the end we see him throwing a ring that hits a banister and doesn’t fall where he wanted it to go. This will at the end save him because the ring will be taken by a hobo, who will be convicted of the murder.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
M
Dear Mum,
How are you?
Is every thing fine there?
I’m still in Berlin at the moment. I like it here.
Here I am away from my home, I am away from my friends, family, culture and my routine.
To me Berlin is like a monastery, in which I should conduct a life of reflection and seclusion.
This is why I decided to come to Berlin, to find something in me, maybe something lost or more likely something I never had. In the process I actually felt I almost lost myself, all my beliefs, all my securities, in other words completely spoiled of everything I had in my head, simply resting in a lake of confusion.
How terribly fascinating it was!
I realized that part of my character, of my ideas, stuck me in a cage from which I could see the world, but I didn’t have the possibility to interact with it. I correct myself: not possibility, but capability.
Only accepting myself I could be free, paradoxically free myself from myself, but at the same time I knew (still now) that my relationship with you would be deteriorated, accepting myself would have meant refusing part of you.
Because my moral (and conservative) ideas were given to me since I was a child and they’ve continued to grow more like weeds that suffocated me than strong and healthy trees that would donate fresh air.
I have to say that I tried so hard to remove these “weeds” and to plant new seeds in all these years, or at least in this last year. I played with my words, I exercised a lot talking to you, refusing completely you. It was useless, I wasn’t in harmony with my heart. On one hand I wanted to tell you some things, but on the other my heart wasn’t ready. I couldn’t change it with my mind.
So in these months I thought so much about what happened, about how much it was hard for you and for me. At first Babbo’s death, then the mourn, which was long and difficult, especially for you. After that you being sick and you not doing much, with the consequence of me screaming at you…outside because I didn’t like how you were and what you represented in my mind (the old moral conceptions), inside because I didn’t like how I was and how you influenced me. I didn’t like how it would be so easy for me to disappoint you, I didn’t like the thought of you not loving me, of you not being proud of me. I was afraid.
I guess it’s true that when kids turn fourteen is always more difficult. They finally arrive at first to a blurry image of reality and with time to a more and more clear one. Clear image also of themselves.
Nevertheless you being away from me helped. I learned more about myself and about you. I learned how to appreciate you and all of your interests, most of all your religious one.
When I called you, you seemed so happy, so calm, so serene and I craved for that too, but I can’t possibly take your same path, even though this letter is the fist step to a change.
I am more flexible, more tolerant. Now I love you and consider you for what you are and not what you should be. I love you because you are my mother and I’m bound to you for a spiritual and sanguine bond. It is natural that I love you, it’s my instinct.
Going against you would be going against myself, going against nature.
Now I know that I have to tell you this or you will never know me completely.
I am gay. Please accept this side of me, without asking stupid questions like why or how, because I can’t hide it anymore. I am like I always was with the difference that now I’m totally honest.
Don’t think you did something wrong. You are wonderful.
Sincerely yours,
I know that this letter is maybe too short for this confession, but I also think that a mother understands and supports without needing too many words.
How are you?
Is every thing fine there?
I’m still in Berlin at the moment. I like it here.
Here I am away from my home, I am away from my friends, family, culture and my routine.
To me Berlin is like a monastery, in which I should conduct a life of reflection and seclusion.
This is why I decided to come to Berlin, to find something in me, maybe something lost or more likely something I never had. In the process I actually felt I almost lost myself, all my beliefs, all my securities, in other words completely spoiled of everything I had in my head, simply resting in a lake of confusion.
How terribly fascinating it was!
I realized that part of my character, of my ideas, stuck me in a cage from which I could see the world, but I didn’t have the possibility to interact with it. I correct myself: not possibility, but capability.
Only accepting myself I could be free, paradoxically free myself from myself, but at the same time I knew (still now) that my relationship with you would be deteriorated, accepting myself would have meant refusing part of you.
Because my moral (and conservative) ideas were given to me since I was a child and they’ve continued to grow more like weeds that suffocated me than strong and healthy trees that would donate fresh air.
I have to say that I tried so hard to remove these “weeds” and to plant new seeds in all these years, or at least in this last year. I played with my words, I exercised a lot talking to you, refusing completely you. It was useless, I wasn’t in harmony with my heart. On one hand I wanted to tell you some things, but on the other my heart wasn’t ready. I couldn’t change it with my mind.
So in these months I thought so much about what happened, about how much it was hard for you and for me. At first Babbo’s death, then the mourn, which was long and difficult, especially for you. After that you being sick and you not doing much, with the consequence of me screaming at you…outside because I didn’t like how you were and what you represented in my mind (the old moral conceptions), inside because I didn’t like how I was and how you influenced me. I didn’t like how it would be so easy for me to disappoint you, I didn’t like the thought of you not loving me, of you not being proud of me. I was afraid.
I guess it’s true that when kids turn fourteen is always more difficult. They finally arrive at first to a blurry image of reality and with time to a more and more clear one. Clear image also of themselves.
Nevertheless you being away from me helped. I learned more about myself and about you. I learned how to appreciate you and all of your interests, most of all your religious one.
When I called you, you seemed so happy, so calm, so serene and I craved for that too, but I can’t possibly take your same path, even though this letter is the fist step to a change.
I am more flexible, more tolerant. Now I love you and consider you for what you are and not what you should be. I love you because you are my mother and I’m bound to you for a spiritual and sanguine bond. It is natural that I love you, it’s my instinct.
Going against you would be going against myself, going against nature.
Now I know that I have to tell you this or you will never know me completely.
I am gay. Please accept this side of me, without asking stupid questions like why or how, because I can’t hide it anymore. I am like I always was with the difference that now I’m totally honest.
Don’t think you did something wrong. You are wonderful.
Sincerely yours,
I know that this letter is maybe too short for this confession, but I also think that a mother understands and supports without needing too many words.
Europe
The future of Europe?
There’s something!!! I can finally see something in my crystal ball. I thought there was no future for you, dear Europe.
Ok I was wrong!
Until last year I thought that Europe didn’t stand a chance of becoming a united political nation in front of all the other big countries that were already united thanks to the obvious idea of nation, according to which, from Fichte to Wilson, people who had in common the same language, culture, traditions, blood and religion could get together.
I remember writing in a class essay my idea on the impossibility of the creation of a United States of Europe, mocking all those intellectuals who said that if the European nations wanted to survive the increasing international competition they had to merge together.
With wit and sarcasm I reminded all those fools that it was absurd simply because the people disliked the idea of having a common nation, like the French and Dutch referendums showed us.
But did the people know what was written in the constitution? Did they vote against it just because they were against what it said? The answers are both No! The French and Dutch people didn’t have an idea on what the constitution provided and they didn’t actually care much about it. They weren’t even against what it symbolized.
So why did they vote NO?!
The answer should concern both intellectuals and politicians who were supposed to promote the E.U. and the referendum, but since they did it with an old mentality, which was born from jingoism and didn’t die with the fall of the Berlin wall, they didn’t convince anybody.
They reminded their people of the economic and political security that the choice would lead to. But they forgot that today you don’t do politics by suggesting fear of China or terrorism for example. People are sick and tired of these things. They just want to live in a serene state where the only worries are the personal ones.
Maybe European people haven’t got religion, language, traditions or blood in common; but they have the same cultural roots: all the European countries were born from the ashes of the Greek polis and the Roman Empire.
The culture is the real basis on which a European state should be created.
A new way of thinking, a new mentality with which the Europeans can live together without problems.
Today it’s possible to have different faces thanks to people that are able to leave behind tensions and finally look each other without hatred, integrating minorities to enrich themselves, to enrich their mind and soul, so that new ideas can be produced.
Europe’s motto is “united in diversity” and thanks to this, before the politicians will come to common decisions (It will take decades), the Europeans will get a better view from the top of the entire world, maturing a mentality that can help Europe be the symbol of the modern citizen of the world.
In conclusion, as a half American, I think that Europe’s future isn’t that of finding an American type of patriotism, because I find it almost impossible, instead Europe’s people should be the engine for a the construction of a new kind of society based on the true values of the human mind and not just sentimental impulses that lead to xenophobia and fear of all sorts.
There’s something!!! I can finally see something in my crystal ball. I thought there was no future for you, dear Europe.
Ok I was wrong!
Until last year I thought that Europe didn’t stand a chance of becoming a united political nation in front of all the other big countries that were already united thanks to the obvious idea of nation, according to which, from Fichte to Wilson, people who had in common the same language, culture, traditions, blood and religion could get together.
I remember writing in a class essay my idea on the impossibility of the creation of a United States of Europe, mocking all those intellectuals who said that if the European nations wanted to survive the increasing international competition they had to merge together.
With wit and sarcasm I reminded all those fools that it was absurd simply because the people disliked the idea of having a common nation, like the French and Dutch referendums showed us.
But did the people know what was written in the constitution? Did they vote against it just because they were against what it said? The answers are both No! The French and Dutch people didn’t have an idea on what the constitution provided and they didn’t actually care much about it. They weren’t even against what it symbolized.
So why did they vote NO?!
The answer should concern both intellectuals and politicians who were supposed to promote the E.U. and the referendum, but since they did it with an old mentality, which was born from jingoism and didn’t die with the fall of the Berlin wall, they didn’t convince anybody.
They reminded their people of the economic and political security that the choice would lead to. But they forgot that today you don’t do politics by suggesting fear of China or terrorism for example. People are sick and tired of these things. They just want to live in a serene state where the only worries are the personal ones.
Maybe European people haven’t got religion, language, traditions or blood in common; but they have the same cultural roots: all the European countries were born from the ashes of the Greek polis and the Roman Empire.
The culture is the real basis on which a European state should be created.
A new way of thinking, a new mentality with which the Europeans can live together without problems.
Today it’s possible to have different faces thanks to people that are able to leave behind tensions and finally look each other without hatred, integrating minorities to enrich themselves, to enrich their mind and soul, so that new ideas can be produced.
Europe’s motto is “united in diversity” and thanks to this, before the politicians will come to common decisions (It will take decades), the Europeans will get a better view from the top of the entire world, maturing a mentality that can help Europe be the symbol of the modern citizen of the world.
In conclusion, as a half American, I think that Europe’s future isn’t that of finding an American type of patriotism, because I find it almost impossible, instead Europe’s people should be the engine for a the construction of a new kind of society based on the true values of the human mind and not just sentimental impulses that lead to xenophobia and fear of all sorts.
Ana
Ana loves me or loves me not?
“My friend Ana gave me some photos of Twiggy I didn’t have. She is so inspiring”
“I must remember that nothing tastes as good as thin feels…nothing tastes as good as thin feels…nothing…thin…THIN!”
Maybe lots of girls affected by an eating disorder have this frame of mind. It’s actually very common. If we visit any pro-ana website it will state the same quotes, moreover some are even worse.
Indeed since it’s very risky to do a public propaganda to support the wannabe-thins, some one had the superb idea to use the internet as the motor of the underground anorexia movement.
These websites are friendly communities where girls can chat and give suggestions on how losing weight quickly. The girls feel comfortable because nobody judges them and they can communicate what they feel to people that will understand their situation.
“I’m not sick, this is my decision and I don’t want anyone interfering with it”. They think that the non –recovery from the disorder is a choice that should be respected by doctors and family if they even ever thought it was a disorder.
Some of them don’t realize the reality of life threatening.
More frightful is that many of them know the consequences, but still dream of the “perfect body”. It’s a sincere craving and it becomes with time their crazy life goal, their only goal.
The followers of Ana are so determined that could be compared to trains that won’t stop in front of anything but will arrive to destination no matter what and without any in between stop.
The power of their will is so enormous that some one could also envy that power in a bizarre way. They do sports as if it was their oxygen.
“Desire can be quelled by a single act of will…the goal can be reached with little sacrifice…must be concentrated, must lose so pounds…I want to purify my soul…I want to be as light as an angel…I want to be perfect”.
Is anorexia a lifestyle? Isn’t a reality taken to the extreme?
Don’t we have really thin women already in our everyday society? Women that work, that have a very important job that requires speed, quickness, dynamism, energy, determination. They are successful, they are an example! These business women are thin because they have to move with great easiness and to achieve their dreams they are willing to sacrifice anything. Nothing will stop them. They must be have a sharp mind but also a sharp body. Razor sharp.
Anorexia is the same phenomena taken to a sick level. It’s an obsession for success but this time the results want to be seen on the body because otherwise these girls feel like losers. In their mind the society sees them as losers. They have maybe the strongest will and power to continue a torture that is simply madness but they are so fragile inside that can’t understand the dangerous road that they are taking.
Sticks and stones may break their bones the crave for personal affirmation may starve them to death.
Sorry ladies, Ana doesn’t love you. She will just consume you till you will be eaten by worms…yes eaten! You will be food for worms!!
University application
Studying literature implies, in the modern working society of today, uncertainty. As a matter of fact very often it is difficult to find a job afterwards, much more difficult than with other degrees, but this uncertainty gives me, unlike many other people, a sensation of giddiness for the future, for the unpredictable; it obliges me to relay more on that fifty percent of my destiny for which I am the craftsman. So on the one hand, this forces me to strive for my goals with more eagerness, fully believing on my own skills and being self-confident. On the other hand, it makes me open to any possibility. Thus the unknown enriches me with the real rhythm of the chance and catalyzes me to produce new strengths and CONFIDENCE.
I am a strong believer that every body should be as less narrow minded as possible, so that it is possible to decide without stupid preconception, which after a while bring the mind to be very arid.
To acquire a detached view over various issues I suggest two personal solutions.
First of all to live a few years outside of the country of origin, because one lacks an outsider VIEW of it and at the same one isn’t conscious of any other culture with which one can confront his/her own.
Indeed my double citizenship compels me to continually question situations and facts. Thanks to my Italian citizenship I experienced, a southern culture, characterized by the folklore and the marks left by the long and ancient history, and thanks to my American one I came into contact with a culture which is based on the individual success, the cult of innovation and that one of meritocracy.
Literature is the second solution, because it is a global knowledge that covers all aspects of life. It shows the possibilities and the manifoldness of life; which as a result transforms life into beauty. So the more you see and learn, the more you are able to catch the variety and the beauty with a sensible soul.
WORD, the most powerful instrument humans have, is at the basis of our intellect; it allows us to create anything, to think about very complex issues as well as the most trivial.
However, there is a world outside the jurisdiction of words, while words can elicit some of the most moving images in the world, they are only black and white. Even the most complicated of words is simple. Words are simply too inflexible to truly describe the nuances of life.
This is true, but it does not limit us at all, on the contrary, where the word ends our imagination takes its place. Just think of Dante’s Paradise!
Word and imagination are two elements that are strictly connected. Word reproduces images and the imagination produces words.
Word has two natures. Firstly it is rigid so that it can cancel everything that is useless leaving the unsaid to the Imagination, therefore it can renew and transform what before was dull into something interesting. The second nature is its abstractness, the real reason of its lightness and its almost religious entity, the reason why it has the power to transfigure gray reality into irony, dream and mystification for example.
Literature works with both the forces of Word and Imagination to (en)lighten people’s lives.
Man gets inebriated when he wants to melt more easily with the world. MAGIC is Nietzsche’s young inebriated boy who dances and laughs about what everybody else believes is sacred. Magic is laughter and dance. These last two for me are the key to everything, are the secret to life. With dance and laughter man creates, with nothing else. He imposes new values and lyricisms, new meanings and games, to his life.
To create, in my opinion, is the way man can be satisfied at the fullest. Creating completely new personal world is my goal and I will do it through words that for me have a special meaning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)