um -

[iceinyourmusic]

- with all due respect – fuck you, Mr. Almodóvar.



"In spite of both the women being in a coma, it actually makes communication easier between those couples. As long as one person loves, there is a relationship. [-]." [- -] Almodóvar grins: "'Rape?' I don't like to talk about rape in this movie, even though it's a crime. Benigno is a very special case, and the film is original in the way it talks about him. Any psychologist would probably say that he's a psychopath – and I was attracted to the idea of treating humanely a character like that." [- -] "I'm very proud of [the silent movie sequence that the audience is shown instead of the rape]," says Almodóvar. "In hiding [the rape], I show a parallel story that has the information – in a way. But at the same time it is very amusing. It hides – but it tells you what is happening and also how he's feeling."

(from http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/interviews/story.jsp?story=325836)

The woman being in a coma makes "communication" easier? A "very special case"? Grin-grin-grin because it’s all so goddamn amusing? Fuck you so very many times over.

(And no, I really wouldn’t bother to care as much if the first third or so of the movie hadn’t been so maddeningly beautiful – it was, so much that although even the magic of the narration pure didn’t last for much longer, I kept hoping I’d be given something, something to redeem the movie for me all the way to the end. But – right. Didn’t happen. - Our newspaper critic just ate it all up, ecstatic: ’you must believe in miracles in order to accept this story’. Rape as a fucking miracle. The almighty moviemaker-God’s way of telling us that, look, the poor fellow’s actually the victim here, look how he sacrifices himself for his love and the society just doesn’t understand; see how he’s actually rescuing the poor girl. (And also some random association to Breaking the Waves, which was creepy enough in itself.) – And on top of this, the general idea of the ideal woman as passive, unresponsive, unable to agree or disagree when the man so admirably talks to her (and I think the film knows this about itself – see the first part of the final dance sequence); the one strong, alive female character turned mere plot device half way along and eventually punished by death. And yes, I care, even if it doesn’t matter.)


(Thanks to my two lovely anthropology test subjects, I now feel much more free to use the word ’fuck’ in a sentence. Also, all by itself, if necessary.)

In other news, my cousin M. got engaged last weekend. Mother has been squeeing with joy ever since. (Mother, mother, who says to me, very carefully: "Maybe you should try stepping out of the feminist zone for a while in order to understand this movie.") And I’m going for an overnight cruise, for no other purpose than getting very drunk, throwing up in the ship toilet, crying, and burning holes into my shirtsleeves with ashes from my cigarette. I think those are the rules, yes.

[Edit: The activities described above be also my way of celebrating the Toby Tuesday, methinks, for teanna has clearly written us a drama with such instructions (you just need to interpret it right. and it's damn funny, too).]

Comments

[teanna.livejournal.com]

;P

[leksa.livejournal.com]

"What really bothered me in those days," Teanna said, "was how they tried to make me look like an enabler even on the days when I was really on my best behaviour."