Chloe: Critic Girl/Renaissance Woman

This is the first movie in a long time (since Swimming Pool, actually) that I couldn’t have a reaction to immediately. Instead, I wanted to do research and read more about the film and actually engage in some discussions with others. As it turns out, I don’t have a usual place to go for such things and so I went straight to IMDB - the usual go to place for all things questionable in film. In all of the threads there, I only found one remotely interesting discussion and everyone else was just concerned with the nudity and sex scenes. There is so much more to this movie.

I don’t know that much about the turmoil in France in 1968, or anything about the cinema of the day, but that is the back drop for this movie. Based on the novel, The Holy Innocents, it’s not as much about the actual politics of that time, but the raw emotion that everyone was experiencing. And the politics do serve as the framework for conflict and discourse amongst the students.

There are so many things that I would like to talk about with regards to this movie - Bertolucci presents a number of diametrically opposed elements that are still so tightly entwined with each other…it is nearly impossible to sort through. Overwhelmingly, innocence and love are the strongest themes, juxtaposed against a darker deeper sense of knowledge and selfishness.

…

It’s now been quite some time since I saw this film, and I haven’t come to any more conclusions. I am going to have to watch this again and process, and potentially try to read the book. I think, though, the visual adventure is what has haunted me and so I’m looking forward to further clarifications through viewings. I am sure that this will not be my last post and I certainly haven’t stopped looking for good conversation about The Dreamers.

After a brief hiatus, I have returned in full force. (Nothing like impending exams to make a girl get on her blog horse)

My project now is to work on building my own lexicon. I’ve done this in a number of different ways throughout my life: underlining every other word in Jane Eyre as a fourth grader in over my head, keeping a running list of words I come across in my notebook, etc.

I do love words and I love to use them in creative ways. There are so many great words out there that hardly ever get used (nefarious, exuberant, and so on) and so many words that just get used and used and never thought about (awesome, irrespective, etc.) - so here, I will keep a running list of words I come across and want to look up, or words I like the sound of or should be used more often.

Today’s word is watershed. I have the Indigo Girls to thank for my interest in this word and it seemed appropriate for the occasion. It’s been written in my little notebook for weeks and it is finally making its debut.

Watershed: …3) A critical point that marks a division of change of course; a turning point…

Up on the watershed, standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
’til your agony is your heaviest load.
You’ll never fly as high as the crow flies, get used to the country mile
When you’re learning to face the path at your pace,
Every choice is worth your while.

- Indigo Girls, “Watershed”