In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, I love the quiet absorption of being in a darkened theater and the vicarious release of watching a movie or a play. I know I am not the only one.
How many of these actresses deserve to be on the list?
I'm not wont to make this judgment: What they earned is what they earned, deservedly or not. I hold to the belief that art has two sides to its coin: creative and commercial. The relationship between the two - having talent and making money, more specifically - may be a complex one and may be attributed, as many would in some cases, to luck of the draw.
So we have working figures. Let's look at the oeuvre of the top three, shall we.
Angelina Jolie wrote and directed "In the Land of Blood and Honey," showcasing her multifaceted repertoire.
Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress in "Silver Linings Playbook," as such a young age that more, no doubt, are in the offing.
Kristen Stewart managed to get paid upfront for her role in "Snow White and the Huntsman," and thus may have more negotiating prowess than acting talent.
First, there was "Before Sunrise" (1995). Where the ordinary yet sweet love story between Jesse and Celine began. This is one of my favorites scenes in the film: The beggar doesn't beg, but writes poetry, instead.
Then, there was "Before Sunset" (2004). In this clip, Celine sings a heartfelt love song for Jesse. Who will end up missing his flight back home to the US.
Now, there is "Before Midnight." The love story that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy began 18 years ago continues ...
In late March, it was becoming clear to us Chicago Bulls fans that Derrick Rose's return from injury was no simple or straightforward thing. On March 23rd and 24th, I wrote notes that were to become a lengthy article - Waiting for Derrick Rose - as it dawned on me that this matter was existential and farcical in nature, worthy of Samuel Beckett.
I transcribe some of those notes here, as they relate more specifically to the play "Waiting for Godot" and its emblematic portrayal of Western life:
The discontinuity of time
The absence and uncertainty of memory
The routinization and meaninglessness of life
Waiting becomes a set of tedious dialogue and caricatured activity
Transcript of "Waiting for Godot" (Act 1 and Act 2) The Past
The continuity of time in Waiting for Godot is broken. Vladimir and Estragon are not sure, for a moment, whether they were there yesterday; and they entertained the possibility that Godot came and they missed him.
The next day, Estragon forgets where he had put his boots.
The boy comes back the next day, but insists that he wasn’t there yesterday, and again says that Godot will come tomorrow.
The Present
Nothing happens. The existential fear of nothingness, meaninglessness, and routinization. For some, this can feel like an inescapable trap.
Life happens. For better or for worse. For comedy and drama. There is conversation, there is friendship, there are encounters, there are news.
The Future
Waiting, in Western Culture, is a fact of life, and it almost seems like an intolerable experience. “We want things yesterday” and “God give me patience, and give it to me now.”
Future is endowed with saviors, and those figures lose their human semblance. Guess what? Godot does nothing, too. Moreover, he beats certain boys apparently.
What a brilliant, multimedia work! Samuael Topiary is creative, for sure, especially with her writing. Her acting, though, is mediocre, and the acoustics of this theater is not good. Also, it’s way too much monologue, not enough interaction or conversation.
That notwithstanding, her effort resonates with the cross genre, multimedia nature of art for me, and it offers me guidance on how I may eventually stage The Room. And I repeat, Topiary is brilliant and creative!
More striking than Walt's dual identity, though, is the poster's allusion to Fame. Is it even possible to hear the phrase "remember my name" and not follow it with "fame! I'm gonna live forever … "? No, it is not possible. And thus one wonders if this poster is telling us that Walter White in fact does not die at the end of the series, but instead does what the lyrics of Irene Cara's 1980 hit suggest: "I'm gonna live forever / I'm gonna learn how to fly (high!) / I feel it coming together / People will see me and cry." That is basically Heisenberg's theme song.
Speaking of Irene Cara and "Fame" ...
Baby, look at me and tell me what you see
You ain't seen the best of me yet
Give me time, I'll make you forget the rest
I've got more in me, and you can set it free
I can catch the moon in my hand
Don't you know who I am?
Remember my name
If you still need a reminder to remember his name and remember her name, here's another one:
This film has no where the brisk pace and sharp action that we're used to in the cinema. No wonder, it's from 1978, and director Alan Rudolph pays homage to women of the silver screen, the likes of Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford. Geraldine Page as Emily is worthy of that comparison, as her acting carries us along a methodical pace and increasingly gripping drama.
Yes, I did. "Sailing to Byzantium" is WB Yeats' stirring poem, as he speaks to aging, rails at our physical frailty as a "dying animal," and romanticizes immortality as a golden bird.
Byzantium was to become Constantinople, now Istanbul. Presumably "no country for old men" is Ireland, where Yeats is from, and Turkey is the country he romanticizes. Apparently Yeats never traveled to Turkey, but it clearly stirred his poetry in a stunningly beautiful way!
What I cannot seem to find is how (or even if) the novelist Cormac McCarthy was influenced by Yeats' poem. There are some parallels between the novel and poem, especially on aging and some brutal imagery, but otherwise they're radically different works of art.
