saw a couple of great films this weekend.
first was underground by emir kusturica, which starts off following a couple of yugoslavian freedom fighters and the woman they love, and seems merely crazy, but then it just gets more and more bizarre and fantastical. now, i can’t seem to stop muttering “fucking facist motherfuckers!” to myself, and wishing i had a brass band following me around providing a personal soundtrack.
we also saw the new charlie kaufman film, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, directed by michel gondry, probably best known for directing most of bjork’s music videos, including the incredible story within a story within a story video for bachelorette. i’ll try to describe as little as possible of the film, as it’s best experienced without any bits of the plots revealed, and you definitely should avoid all reviews, as i haven’t seen a single one that doesn’t spoil something. the basic conceit is that there’s a method where you can go in and have them erase all memory of someone in your brain, as if they never existed for you. it’s pretty interesting and rather (bitter?)sweet.
but this reminded me of an idea that i must have read in some book somewhere (kundera maybe?), that aside from any ideas of afterlife or reincarnation, our span of existence goes on for one, maybe two generations after we die, in the memories of people that we knew and affected. so even after we’ve passed away, we still exist in the memories of our children, and maybe even grandchildren, and it’s not until they pass away do we actually cease to exist. of course, if there were machines that could erase you from peoples’ memories today, then your existence would possibly get even shorter as well, as you’re killing off lines of life, strands of memory which are versions of you, right?
but now thinking about this, the corollary might be that fame is the way to live eternal, to at least have some form of yourself live forever. like jesus or elvis or martin luther king. or paris hilton.
Posted at March 22, 2004 8:53 AMESoftheSM had one of the most perfect endings i’ve ever seen. Ever. Seen.
and watching it made me feel totally twisted up and wrung out and ready to absorb whatever came next.
it was perhaps the world’s oddest pep talk for falling in love.
Posted by: xz at March 22, 2004 12:11 PMI don’t know how much our memories actually resemble anyone’s existence. It seems to me they resemble our own existence more. But I didn’t come here to be contrary. Really. Lucas has this notion about “reincarnation” It’s about how we influence others. Your mannerisms, speech patterns, and habits are taken on by the people around you and therefore are incarnate in their lives…and so on..and so on. It’s silly, but you know that you quote that phrase of your grandma’s and have that particular laugh just like your childhood friend’s.
Posted by: Cheryl at March 24, 2004 5:24 PMComments are now closed for this entry. Thank you for playing.