On return around 4pm I had the salad and the two remaining Danish pastries. Later a glass of wine although I had to decant as the cork went back into the bottle. Later still I had three chicken pieces and the remaining strawberries, followed by still water, created Artman signature card and did some set making and watch not one but two new films after watching the Jane Austin Book club DVD last night.
This is a curious film where a knowledge of the novels will add to the enjoyment but is not essential. The story is of five diverse women who come together to discuss the six novels once a month with each leading a discussion. The sixth, is man brought in to comfort the wife deserted by her husband after twenty years of marriage. The core of the film is to show how individuals, (including a French teacher at High school who has never been to France) react to literary art or all art work for that matter, according to their own personalities and experience. Thus the jilted wife concentrates on the aspects of characters who are loyal and face up to their responsibilities. She has a good ending because her husband sees the light. I was not quite sure about the authenticity of their lesbian daughter, but she served to underline the belief of those who look in the novels for great meaning about the role of women in society, their relationships with men and with each other. This theme of the past and present roles of women in society is covered by one character who has been married six times and continues to have the time of her life, again a fictional creation because life is never like that, Then there is the character played by the delicious Emily Blunt whose normal male in business husband has to give up a trip to Paris with his wife because his boss requires him to go elsewhere but in the USA. He is portrayed as think and uncaring. This is the excuse for the Emily to start an affair. A friend of the six times married women is a dog breeder grieving over the loss of her special canine companion and it is she that brings in the male as the sixth member of the club. She has never married because she needs to have absolute control over every aspect of her life but is attracted to the man she brings into the club to befriend the grieving jilted wife. He is again a creation without authenticity single handsome., wealthy and clever and the ideal modern woman's concept what she wants all men to be like except the man she wants to control her natural emotional and manipulative instincts. I thought the characters were rubbish and the story a fictional contrivance to show off a knowledge of the works of Jane Austin
The best way to read any book of fiction, in my experience, is to submerge yourself in the experiences described by the author, no different from any play or film or work of visual art. Do you enjoy, are you stretched and challenged? It is only on the second experience that you should, if you wish. take the work apart and try and establish what the creator intended and perhaps why, and if the creator was successful in their intention. Most people do not have the time or inclination to do this. I thought this was silly film about people who were primarily self centred and self satisfied seeking only their own pleasure and well being with little regard for the world at a large. However they were all much more worthwhile than the sub human single dimensional creatures who inhabited perhaps the worst film experience of the year called the Summer of Sam. In 1997 a single man living alone at Yonkers went on the rampage killing young people at random who were mostly in their cars and or walking alone at night in the white Italian area of Brooklyn although there is one killing within the black district.. He was eventually caught after the efforts of 100 strong task force failed as is the resources of the local crime boss which appears to be an acceptable part of every American city along with crime related unions.
New York is shown as populated by primitive and uneducated drug taking and fornicating yobs and I could not resist the passing thought that Son of Sam as he became dubbed in the media would have been awarded a community service medal if he had been more discriminate in his executions. He is serving six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life The film is a pathetic attempt to commercially exploit the disco club mania which swept western civilizations promoted by Joan Collins films and John Travolta with the gore genre designed almost exclusively for young men who want to frighten their girl friend's a little before trying out their seduction techniques. The genre opened up our cities to the development of clubs and bars for young people, and the very politicians and civil leaders who allowed the development have now the gall to complain about the consequences. The trouble is that it is the sons and daughters of everyone else who understandably become curious and get harmed through the misuse of drugs and alcohol and to the misuse by men.
I only half watched this film as I came too having slept through the ending of a fascinating Japanese film called Let's Live or let's Stay alive, or similar. The film is about a young woman who mistakenly joins a coach tour planed by a group of men who all wants to end their lives and because they want their deaths to appear an accident rather than a suicide the organiser insists that the girl must join them. The tour provides an insight into the reasons why each man wants to die and something of contemporary Japanese culture. Just as the finale was reached I went to sleep and will have to watch again to find the outcome.
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