Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

I was given the opportunity of watching Midnight In Paris, although it was released in the latter half of 2011, with a few of my other friends in class as a 'context fixer' in the cultural course we had opted for early this year.  The movie, Midnight in Paris, directed and written by Woody Allen, is a beautiful movie based in Paris and the adventures that the protagonist ensues.

At first, I wasn't sure if the movie would interest me as the start seemed rather dull to me. However as the movie progressed, it was a rather 'magical experience'. It was a rather engaging film concentrating on the conflicting emotions of the male lead, Gil Pender - a successful but creatively unfulfilled Hollywood screenwriter - and his relationship with his fiancée, Inez, who are in Paris, vacationing with Inez's wealthy, conservative parents.

I personally, would love to be in the shoes of Gil Pender, who, every midnight gets to spend time with the artistically gifted men and women, specifically those of the Lost Generation, whom Pender loves and appreciates. Why would you not want to spend time talking with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Alice B. Toklas, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel. He even gets his novel to be read by Gertrude Stein, an acclaimed poet and writer and had influenced Hemingway. 

While his midnight rendezvous continue on a daily basis, his relationship with Inez deteriorates and leads him to question the relationship. Meanwhile, Gil spends more and more time with Adriana, who leaves Picasso and has a brief dalliance with Hemingway. Gil realizes that he is falling in love with her, leaving him conflicted.

The movie is told and directed in a beautiful manner, soaking you right into the subject matter of the story. It's a very absorbing movie with a great script and great direction. What can possibly go wrong with Woody Allen's movies? The movie beautifully captures the inner conflict that Pender experiences and the 'inner awakening' that he has over the course of the movie. He comes to understand himself and at the end of the movie does what he thinks is best for him. Corey Stoll portrayed Ernest Hemingway amazingly well and has probably done justice as a creative re-imagination of Hemingway as a person and author.

The movie give a rather warm and 'fuzzy' feeling within you and at times - for me, at least - I felt that I was a part of the movie. It is a rather genuine film exploring both the artistic flair of a period - that of the Lost Generation, whom, as said before Pender enjoyed - and of the complex human emotions.

Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller*

So, after 3 Semesters of doing British Literature, we finally dawned upon the American Literature. We're doing a variety of texts but this play annoys me to some extent than the other texts. Perhaps it's because of its resemblance to the play that we did semester, John Osborne's Look Back In Anger and Shakespeare's Hamlet. These plays, to my belief, have no action until the very end, when the actual excitement actually beings. But however, by the time I reach the end, the interest [mine, just to make sure, as I can't comment on others] has actually fizzled. Jimmy reconciles with Allison after much anger, Hamlet finally lashes out at his uncle and Willy's action is left pretty much to the readers' imagination, although a few versions do include a funeral scene, which states that he crashed the car and died. The title itself, Death of a Salesman, somewhat prefigures the impending death of Willy in a literal manner, although we can look at the title in different ways.

Willy's character is so embedded into the whole notion of lies and delusion that he has been living in because of his profession - a salesman - it is quite hard to figure out who Willy really is. Having lived in deceived world of lies and being tied down by the past, Willy has found it difficult to cope up with the present reality as it is too harsh for him. When he does catch up with the present reality, the way he sees himself - he would probably see himself as a 'failure' because his sons, Biff and Happy have failed to find success and be well liked - acquires the readers' sympathy as they are able to understand the mental strain that the financial struggles and the personal failures (especially's Biff's loss of fame when he got older, not being well liked and the impact of the extra-marital affair on Biff) have put on him.

Willy's day to day struggle with daily life and work, makes him a more empathetic character and I feel that it is much easier to feel the loss of Willy than that of Hamlet, Crown Prince of Denmark and Jimmy Porter. Although they face personal loss at varying degrees, it is Willy's loss that is more tragic and more realistic that those of Jimmy's and Hamlet. I could say it is probably because of the closeness that one feels with Willy because we may have been in a similar boat or probably because it is something a common man, who has a large amount of debt against his name and the inability to have anything, including his own house, to call his own because of the debt.

By chasing the American Dream, Willy has brought his downfall, the onslaught of the guilt after Biff found him cheating on Linda and the later mental degradation because he was too caught up in the past. Linda fails to help him because she finds easier to lie to his face than break his illusion, especially after he tried to kill himself. By telling herself that everything will be alright, including to Willy, especially when it's not, the situation becomes rather 'sticky'. When Linda states the attempted suicide by Willy, Biff regrets being harsh on Willy and tries to help him albeit unsuccessfully as Willy would rather be independent and feels that asking or agreeing for help would degrade his status.

By focusing on Willy, Miller has brought out this enigmatic character who is too wound up in his past to focus on the present and trying to move on. By making Willy a salesman, Miller is able to explore the various aspects of daily life, especially when most of Willy's daily life is spent on the road. By leaving the ending open-ended (in some versions there is a funeral scene, which may as well allude to the title), he is able to focus on the challenges that Willy had to face, especially when one is unable to let go of the past. The reason for this is simple: the guilt of his affair and the disappointment that Biff had when he found out made it difficult for Willy to move on and thus retreated into his mind to get solace from the harsh reality. Therefore this father-son relationship [Willy - Biff] has failed in many ways because Willy failed to live up to the Biff's expectations and let him down because Biff regarded him as his role model and cheating on Linda was the most 'idiotic' thing to do. Linda is nice woman, and Biff feels that Willy's affair is a disgrace as it denounces her position as a wife. Willy's actions therefore, inadvertently affects everyone around him.

I may not like plays with procrastinating characters (Hamlet) and characters who just rant and vent out their feelings and do nothing about it (Jimmy Porter; although his frustration did start the movement known as the Angry Young Men) but Willy is the character to look out for. The Modern Era has created so much confusion that even we may get lost and get stuck in the past and try connecting them with the present even though it makes no sense. I would like to think that Willy has found his peace somewhere, even though his fate may or may not be mentioned.

That's what I think. It might be an annoying play as there is not much action in terms of physical movement but there is so much action and excitement in Willy's mind that it makes the play more interesting.

* I have not covered everything the play is about. Rather I have focused on Willy as a character and what I have come to realize about him, especially after doing this play as a detailed study in my Literature Course this semester. In general, I did not find the play that exciting or very interesting while studying it or when I read it. I have made comparisons to Hamlet and Jimmy Porter because of all the characters that I have come across in Literature, these are the two most annoying characters that have ever been created for their lack of action and to some extent are similar to Willy. This is just my reading and understanding. After all, Literature is all about interpretations and re-readings. And there is no wrong answer; everyone is right in their way.

NOTE:

So, feel free to leave constructive comments and not anything blasphemous and please don't border on slander or libel as I will remove it and block you from commenting. Thanks.

Examination Blues

As I sit down trying to study for my upcoming exams, I wonder what could possibly go wrong while I write these exams, apart from failing. I understand its implications but then procrastinating to study is sure way of making it happen, which of course, I cannot let happen for obvious reasons like it makes the mark-sheet look bad when you're applying a postgrad course.

Apart form the 'dreaded' Monday blues, I would say that Exam Blues are the next worst thing for everyone, I would think. Testing of our knowledge of what we have learnt a cramped, short semester of 3.5 months. Another thing while we would have to look into is that of internships for the following month. How much can we possibly do. :/ - The joys the following month shall bring me.

Exams may be dreaded but once its over, we wouldn't have to bother until the results come out and crossing our fingers to ensure that our numbers would be there. Which I hope would happen, considering what I am doing at this very moment instead of studying for the exams the following week. This reminds me of Willy from Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller - wherein he asks Bernard to let Biff copy his answers during the state exam. 'Course cheating is bad. Not that I should do it, 'cos there's this teacher who does the rounds across the room and there's possibly no one I could copy from simply because you cannot be sure what they have studied. As I take Literature as one of my majors, I may know the answer to the question on Lord Alfred Tennyson's The Second Coming more better and would be sure of writing a full fledged and thorough analysis along with the necessary cross references to the other literary texts that I have studied than writing an answer on let's say I.A. Richards' critical essay Principles of Literary Criticism, which the other person who is sitting in front of me would know better than Tennyson's Second Coming.

You can never go wrong in Literature - that's what I love about Literature - no possibility of being wrong. Of course, this can only happen if you are reading the prescribed texts and the non-prescribed texts of your own accord and going to the library to get references for your answers, making it more 'fuller'.

But anyways, exams are exams, and one can't possibly avoid them in any possible way, unless you wriggle yourself out because of lack of attendance. But that's just temporary. October is waiting for you; it's calling you. ;)

I'll have to trudge myself to go study Computers, which unfortunately is my first exam. :|