Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Film Review - Be Kind, Rewind
Why do film reviews contain synopses? Well mine won’t, at least you have that. Be Kind, Rewind is directed by Michel Gondry. If you are familiar with him then you know the film could be a hit and miss proposition. His last film, concerning sleep and dreams, is better off seen while dozing. But Mr. Gondry will always have imagination and the whimsical to fall back on. Be Kind, Rewind is a film of tone. It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy; it is delightful. This is a wondrously rare trait in films, and one I must say I cherish wholly. It is so rare that I’m willing to overlook flaws in a movie that has it; luckily this movie doesn’t have much in the way of blunders. One lascivious joke or two unnecessarily mars a scene, but otherwise nothing cringe-worthy. That is one of the reasons I love this film, it is unabashedly naïve and sweet. Even the somewhat tricky concept and characterizations are portrayed as if children are playing in a whimsical land where the laws of physics do not apply, nor the laws of our society which attacks innocence vehemently. This tone is the major achievement of this movie. Go out, see it, and live for a little while in that simpler place.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Arriving at the Island of Discretion
I have an old box of videotapes. Some of them were never really mine. A friend of mine as he left town with the clothes on his back gave them to me, along with the rest of his meager possessions. Looking back on it now, he got the better end of the deal. Walking into his apartment one was confronted by empty space, a TV sitting on the ground against one wall, a few rows of VHS stacked against the wall, some ready to be flipped through leaning, a pillow on the floor opposite the TV. The corner of the dining room had a vacuum cleaner. The kitchen housed a few dishes, his bedroom a futon bed and small dresser. As he left for San Diego we looked in at them, he said if I didn’t want them he was just going to leave them for the landlord. I packed up the videos and TV into my car.
It perhaps goes without saying that the man was single.
But I believe his was the way to live.
Back to the box of tapes, they had never been unpacked from when I moved last, two years ago. Two boxes atop each other caused the one on the bottom with the tapes to split and careen all the tapes onto the floor of my den. Looking at them splayed about, I was forced to deal with them now. These things of our past, some mine, some belonging to someone else in some other time. All I could think is that I want to throw them away, even as the guilt for being a consumerist land fill dumper pumping burdens into the soil. (Guilt always is the wrong way to go).
More and more I don’t want things. I hate having things, stupid things with no use, taking up space and burdening my life with their shadows. I’m looking at the DVDs with the same eye now, all those books, those cds, those electronic gizmos with toxic lead in them. I don’t want to move them ever again, if I have some desire to “have” them, I want to digitize them, strip them of corporeal form. Most of them I don’t need anyway, atop that I don’t much want most of it. I don’t want knick knacks, or dishes, or vases, or telephones, certainly don’t want furniture, or huge heaps of clothes.
All of those movies….I don’t want their accumulation of filth in my attention. I don’t want their impure knowledge, nor cavorting hipsterisms. I don’t want their false seeking like barnacles on my subtle system. They silt into my space, layering upon me a weight not my own. Why should I work daily to shovel that stuff out of the way, when I could just be rid of them for good?
I just need to do it. Commit to the purge and be done with it. Throw all this junk to the wayside. But there is a deeper purge to be done. There is the space within, the creeping conditionings wending inside. Why do I “want” this thing? Why do I watch or listen?
Most people simmer in those conditionings and toot their horns proudly, “Here I am! I AM my conditionings! Look how unique I am. I have these material things as emblem and definition for the contours of my ego! Look at my behavior and habits and know me!”
The right action is to detach from the conditionings. To be free from within, not drawn in by things, or ideas, or people.
The true self shines more brightly in its uniquity than the limited man can foresee. Its brilliance is the flow of Love which permeates all things and is limitless. There are no boundaries for it, beyond matter.
It perhaps goes without saying that the man was single.
But I believe his was the way to live.
Back to the box of tapes, they had never been unpacked from when I moved last, two years ago. Two boxes atop each other caused the one on the bottom with the tapes to split and careen all the tapes onto the floor of my den. Looking at them splayed about, I was forced to deal with them now. These things of our past, some mine, some belonging to someone else in some other time. All I could think is that I want to throw them away, even as the guilt for being a consumerist land fill dumper pumping burdens into the soil. (Guilt always is the wrong way to go).
More and more I don’t want things. I hate having things, stupid things with no use, taking up space and burdening my life with their shadows. I’m looking at the DVDs with the same eye now, all those books, those cds, those electronic gizmos with toxic lead in them. I don’t want to move them ever again, if I have some desire to “have” them, I want to digitize them, strip them of corporeal form. Most of them I don’t need anyway, atop that I don’t much want most of it. I don’t want knick knacks, or dishes, or vases, or telephones, certainly don’t want furniture, or huge heaps of clothes.
All of those movies….I don’t want their accumulation of filth in my attention. I don’t want their impure knowledge, nor cavorting hipsterisms. I don’t want their false seeking like barnacles on my subtle system. They silt into my space, layering upon me a weight not my own. Why should I work daily to shovel that stuff out of the way, when I could just be rid of them for good?
I just need to do it. Commit to the purge and be done with it. Throw all this junk to the wayside. But there is a deeper purge to be done. There is the space within, the creeping conditionings wending inside. Why do I “want” this thing? Why do I watch or listen?
Most people simmer in those conditionings and toot their horns proudly, “Here I am! I AM my conditionings! Look how unique I am. I have these material things as emblem and definition for the contours of my ego! Look at my behavior and habits and know me!”
The right action is to detach from the conditionings. To be free from within, not drawn in by things, or ideas, or people.
The true self shines more brightly in its uniquity than the limited man can foresee. Its brilliance is the flow of Love which permeates all things and is limitless. There are no boundaries for it, beyond matter.
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