It’s been a hectic week for me and I hate to admit that I have absolutely nothing to show for it—it’s all meandering fleeting moments with me passing through it cluelessly. By the time I get a hold of myself and get motivated enough to put myself to work, I see the morning sun rising in the west and I’m exhausted. Deep slumber takes me then, all to herself.
This wouldn’t work. I needed to get back to doing something I enjoy. Reading has been slow, and writing too. The last post I wrote was a week ago. Yet every day I think about writing, I prepare myself in my mind, but in the end, I don’t go through with it. I tell myself, next time, I will get it next time. The next time doesn’t come. My words start to lose their edge. They are not fresh anymore. I see them rotting away, I can visualize them in my mind.
Forget it—I say to myself. I will have some fun instead—I say to myself. I play a film. 10 things I hate about you. A teen movie from the late 1990s. Young Joseph-Gordon Levitt runs around on the screen, he has a baby face-baby voice. Heath Ledger is there, he’s playing the school weirdo. Julia Stiles too, she’s the crazy girl everyone avoids. I stare at Julia, I see her reciting the lines. My god, what happened to this woman? She could have achieved so much more!
Turns out this film is an adaptation of Shakespeare. The Taming of the Shrew. A dude mentally, and physically tortures a rebellious woman to become the obedient wife. Yeah, such a plot wouldn’t fly today. Can’t even imagine the outcry! The modern rendition as a school drama was adapted to fit the age and what it dictates and while it was quite acceptable in 1999, and still feels politically incorrect in 2023. The movie is fun though, it served the purpose I started it with.
Then I moved on to the next film. The Bodyguard from 1992, another romantic film. Starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Huston. Whitney plays the role of a famous actress and singer (herself perhaps?) who is receiving death threats. So her managing team hires a bodyguard, Kevin Costner, an ex-secret service agent. The thing is, she is obnoxious, and doesn't care about her security, and the whole thing creates a romantic tension between the two. The cinematography has a washed-up color to it, a dreamlike quality. Purely a testament to the time it was shot. I miss seeing this type of color grading. But I wish the film was shorter and focused more on the romance part instead of spiraling into being a mystery thriller. Fun it was, I will admit.
After that, I was about to move to a third film, but my eyes couldn’t take it anymore, dizziness was creeping in. Is this an excuse? The film I chose for the last time was one by Kenzi Mizoguchi. I know I wouldn't regret it, it's an art film, it's an important film, and it is hard to sit through. So that’s it then. I’m not ready yet to get back to the form I adore so much. Perhaps soon enough.
The first photo is mine, and rest are screenshots from the films.
