2003-07-17

 
Les Enfants Terribles.
Film by Melville, 1949, based on novel by Cocteau.
I viewed this French film tonight. While all art is negotiable (and thus nonnegotiable; it is what you perceive it to be and no interpretation can ever be objectively false), I found a parallel in the characters' stoicism to the absurd fervor of life.

(short plot: brother and sister with quarreling relationship float through life via a mysterious ailment, sequestering themselves in a shared bedroom. mom dies. sister marries rich, husband dies shortly, inherits mansion where brother and sister and two friends live. brother and one friend fall in love but the sister shrewishly fiddles the situation so she can have her brother to herself. climatic ending which i won't spoil).

It made me think again of how life moves fast around us and in the end we die, existential overtones. The bulk of life is just details. Yet there is a complexity here and that is the subconscious affinities we have individually for rather specific characters. By this I mean a particular face that may appear compulsively attractive to one individual; the things that we, as individuals, find ourselves compelled towards without explanations. Despite the futile dirt of life, we are aligned to a specific path. We may often discover the misfortune of others as we amount to these selfish proclivities. Our life is quite like a railway. The scenery sweeps past us and ever still we head onward with passion's momentum.

a friend of mine also noted that this is a post-WWII European film, where the people had gone through every emotion possible and were left with this bewilderment in its wake. In the US, however, we appeared (and still do) to be spoiled brats, without ever having felt extreme communal trauma. Therefore, in our art, the emotions are a trifle; a small fleck of controversy upheaves us. Many of us are so flimsy that we fail to hold any societal shape. Our diversionary entertainment culture can not be blamed on the capitalist control, for they would sell us whatever we bid them; if we were concerned with community and larger stages than the trifling incidental flecks, say activism or philosophy, our art might not be so whimsical. [Indeed this is a large populace and influences abound and one cannot characterize americans vs. _______ on any account. Diversity flourishes.] Nevertheless, one could still wax conspiratorial and state that our diversionary culture is just an incident of those in power sedating us with the drug of entertainment.
posted by MM 10:16 PM