After a full day of fun with our families, I took Hiking Buddy his Christmas presents. We then decided to drink said Christmas present and watch movies. We watched Midnight in Paris.
Before watching this movie, I had no desire to read Hemingway or Fitzgerald. I knew I should read them because a well-educated person should have read them. But I never have.
I'm watching this movie and I'm just enthralled with Hemingway. I want to know more about him. And his lines in the movie, are they for real? They are so awesome. Here's one
All men fear death. It's a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear
death because we feel that we haven't loved well enough or loved at all,
which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with
a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world
and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death
completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart
with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in
the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never
conquered before, you have conquered a great woman's heart, the most
vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in
the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and
for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes
insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are
making love with a woman of true greatness you will feel immortal.
Overall, I thought the movie was cute and light-hearted and not something I would likely watch again. But in another way, this movie was truly great because it has inspired me to read literature. I'm not sure which one to start with. I'm not even familiar with the works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald so I guess it's off to Wikipedia to find out what books they wrote. Then it is off to iBook or iKindle to see which one is free ;)
2 comments:
It's a pity that even with his insightful writing, Hemingway wasn't able to deal with life in the end. He committed suicide in 1961.
I greatly enjoyed the cinematography of Paris, and the introduction to the historical characters was kind of fun for a while.
Allen has the reputation for being extremely neurotic, having been under psychoanalysis for decades; and like the film's protagonist, he is his own worst enemy. Be aware that his literary and artistic heroes were all of the Modernist persuasion, and this worldview does indeed lead one down into the dark hellish hole of neuroses and worse.
But I don't care much for Woody Allen films in general, although his early ones were funny. His films are all about himself, gazing at himself, which becomes a deadly inward spiral. The Catholic alternative (which also is found in Allen's native Judaism), is to not think of yourself at all, but be selfless. A better filmmaker would stand outside of himself. But even Allen has some of this potential, when he deals with Paris itself. It really does look like that (except for the nasty suburbs).
Click here for a review of the film.
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