My head is too full of ugly black things this morning, and there's nothing good whatsoever that I can say about writing, either about
my writing, specifically, or about
writing in general. So I shall steer clear of the subject entirely.
I'll talk about other things, instead.
Last night, Spooky and I watched Wim Wenders'
Faraway, So Close! (1993), which I am ashamed to say I'd never seen before. It's one of Spooky's favourite films, and
blu_muse sent us a copy on DVD some time ago, but, what with one thing and another, we only got around to watching it last night. What a beautiful, beautiful film. It was too filled with perfect moments to single any one out and say, "There. That's why this was such a perfect, beautiful film. That, right there." Pulling it apart like that would only diminish it, as the beauty lies in each moment and the whole they comprise. And I understand now, more so than after viewing
Wings of Desire, why Brad Silberling's
City of Angels was such a superficial and unnecessary film.
My thanks to
morganxpage for teaching me a fine new word yesterday:
cisgendered. Well, not so much a new word, but a word which is new to me. It shouldn't be. It's a word I don't quite know how I missed, but there you go.
Also, I'd meant to mention earlier that I very much enjoyed Friday night's episode of
Battlestar Galactica, particularly after the last three or four lackluster episodes. I've been waiting for the writers to turn things around and give us something approaching a Cylon perspective, and I thought Friday night was a nice step towards that end. It didn't make me dislike Lucy Lawless any less, though.
Comments
That is one of the things I love about your journal. Informative and entertaining.
I was just reading about the poor critical response it received, which mystifies me. But then critics usually mystify me. I think part of the reaction against this film was that Wenders (or any director perceived as a maker of "artfilm") would ever deign to produce a sequel.
Given that Wings of Desire ends with "To be continued . . ."
(I will admit that the first time I saw the film, on television, when I had no idea what I was looking at—and I'm very glad I did not change the channel—I assumed that line was a reference to the open-ended nature of mortal life, rather than the angels' changeless static. But there is a sequel: so it may be taken literally as well.)
What other Wim Wenders would you recommend? Wings of Desire is the only film of his I've seen.
Also, I think a lot of critics objected to the "action movie subplot" in Faraway, So Close, which I thought worked really well actually.
For Wenders at his slightly-meandering-yet-thoughtful best, I recommend Until the End of the World, and once again, it has a killer soundtrack.
I have been disapponted with the last half of the season on BSG so far. The last three episodes seem to have brought things back up a bit. The last episode for me created more questions than answers, but it also had some lovely twists and turns that kept me watching. I've got more specific issues with the episode, but they are spoilers, so skip down a bit if you want to read them...
We don't get any more idea about the motivations of the Cylons in this episode. I was hoping we'd get some answers, and we do, but not the ones I expected. Cylons are still very much part of the machine-they value symmetry and being part of the colletive whole over everything else. And having "individuals" like CapricaSix and GalacticaBoomer threaten things. Seeing other Cylons looking at them differently...
The Cylons wanted agents that could infiltrate the humans and do their job without detection. They got what they wanted, but they also created what may be their destruction.
I loved the Baltar in Six's head thing-you could imagine the delightful symmetry in it all. And yes, seeing Lucy get her head bashed in was kinda fun...
I've always wondered about the Six in Baltar's head thing, and I'd really love to see a definitive answer about it.
My personal theory is that there was some kind of error when Six transfered to her new body and part of her consiousness ended up in Baltar, somehow.
~Morgan