'Hard Candy' was a disappointment. I rate it below 7, as I was expecting much more. The story-line was strong and gripping and I have never seen Ellen Page hold the screen as strongly as she did there. The story is about a paranoid young girl who is borderline insane and is determined to hunt men with slightest pedophilic inclinations. I liked how absolutely unexpected are her actions. You don't expect her actually castrate the innocent guy (but then again we never know if he is truly innocent), neither do you expect her to make him kill himself. The same day i watched 'Little Children', quite a coincidence though. Except for the steaming love affair between Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson, the plot revolves around a registered child molester. There are times when you are left questioning the validitity of such insanity, or if its insanity at all.
I am studying Frankenstein and Things Fall Apart these days. And it is Frankenstein that I would like to talk about. In his preface to Mary Shelley's novella, P.B Shelley says something remarkable:
"..it (Frankenstein, the novel) affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield."
To explain in simpler terms, he says that it is by exciting or talking about extraordinary passions that the human mind can yield something better or above normal. The feeling of something so superior that it falls out of your control, experiencing the role of a creator to an extent that it demolishes you. Mundane acts such as following your daily trivial routine can never entice emotions as extravagant as these. He does not validate or permit any outrageous behavior, rather he tries to explain the beauty of inhibiting something extreme inside you. I can also talk about how sometimes an artist feels powerless in front of his own creation, but it would make this post sound too academic and lengthy.
My focus is going to be PEDOPHILIA. The disorder or a chosen evil, its aftermath on the guilty and the victim. To begin I need to pick out names of all the movies I have seen till now that have somehow brought this topic; 'M', 'Lolita', 'The Lover', 'Last Tango in Paris', 'Hard Candy', 'Gone Baby Gone', 'Little Children', 'The Color Purple' and...well these are the few that I was able to recollect.
This monstrous state, of having a craving of devouring little children, that fills their minds and members just as much. Its disgusting, but I will not judge today. People are sick, some really are and this is one thing that I figured from 'M'. But what is heart breaking is that these sexual endeavors leave children scarred, and when I say scarred I mean for lifetime. There are ways to perceive it, some render helplessly and surrender themselves to a life of emotional confinement whereas some liberate too much and loose control. But one major aspect that I have noted is the popular glorification of this act. For example take 'Lolita', Vladimir Nabokov was valorized and criticized, his novel is now read and appreciated throughout the world. I am not judging, at least not yet, because I liked reading and watching it. When you see that girl through the eyes of that man you notice curves and wetness in places, the water glistening on her body, her hair falling lightly on her shoulders, the red lipstick and physical movements. We see so because he wants us to see that, but the end is brutal, justified and tragic. The man is killed and suffers for very long, perhaps not more than the girl herself. It made me wonder about voluntary involvement of some young kids into these acts. But that is again too vast a domain with far too many arguments.
'Hard Candy', though I did not like it much, but it made me think. I have known people who have been sexually abused as children. I know and understand that pain and helplessness, I also understand this need for revenge, a satisfactory vengeance. But is vengeance ever really satisfying. Look at the character of Page, she goes around castrating and killing men with slightest suspicion of pedophilia. Would I do that? Yes. But not just pedophiles, but to every man who ever tried getting too comfortable on the bus, or the man who exposed himself. I don't detest these men, I just feel they are of no use. There is an overpowering sadness and then that is replaced by anger. Hayley (Page's character's name in Hard Candy) is going through this struggle. She no longer seeks vengeance, rather she seeks a way out of the suffering inside her by subjecting other men to it.
Now I am shifting my focus from PEDOPHILIA. Its incomprehensible sometimes to see men and women trying so hard SO HARD to feel safe. Not with a partner, not within family, they don't have to feel threatened to want to protect themselves. This safety is not coming out of relationships, rather from a lack of some specific emotions that one is programmed to receive from the society. Since they are born, they are subjected to movies about hopeful love, happy and ideal state of families, a proper and healthy public image and also the ideal physical appearance. I am still trying very hard to not be didactic. But it is this neutrality that pushes boundaries and drags people to an extremity. There are so many people around me who have taken up the duty of pretense. They feel too uncomfortable and don't find people trustworthy enough of any real revelations. But these revelations, they are not some dark secrets that would take away their privacy or feel offensive, it will rob off their safety. The security that took decades to establish.
This might not be unhealthy, but its tiring isn't it? Its tiring to wake up everyday and pretending you have a goal to accomplish, pretending that you will achieve that state of sheer unadulterated happiness some day, pretending to be the most entertaining person who have the wildest stories and pretending that you are exciting. Whereas somewhere inside, when for once you are alone and you are watching an apparently funny movie. You laughed your ass out with people and friends around, you pretended to have actually liked it, but that day when you put it up on your own, you felt nothing, absolutely nothing.
It is not hilarious. The condition of bondage, this pledge that we have made to ourselves in exchange for security is fragile. Its ephemeral. Don't get lost behind that proper and sophisticated mask like 'American Psycho' ( yes, i know, too extreme).
Just make a little promise to yourself, that when you are over all that facade, you will put that comedy on and not move a muscle. Be honest to yourself. Once in a while. Confess.
Confess that you'd be better off.
Accept.!
I am studying Frankenstein and Things Fall Apart these days. And it is Frankenstein that I would like to talk about. In his preface to Mary Shelley's novella, P.B Shelley says something remarkable:
"..it (Frankenstein, the novel) affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield."
To explain in simpler terms, he says that it is by exciting or talking about extraordinary passions that the human mind can yield something better or above normal. The feeling of something so superior that it falls out of your control, experiencing the role of a creator to an extent that it demolishes you. Mundane acts such as following your daily trivial routine can never entice emotions as extravagant as these. He does not validate or permit any outrageous behavior, rather he tries to explain the beauty of inhibiting something extreme inside you. I can also talk about how sometimes an artist feels powerless in front of his own creation, but it would make this post sound too academic and lengthy.
My focus is going to be PEDOPHILIA. The disorder or a chosen evil, its aftermath on the guilty and the victim. To begin I need to pick out names of all the movies I have seen till now that have somehow brought this topic; 'M', 'Lolita', 'The Lover', 'Last Tango in Paris', 'Hard Candy', 'Gone Baby Gone', 'Little Children', 'The Color Purple' and...well these are the few that I was able to recollect.
This monstrous state, of having a craving of devouring little children, that fills their minds and members just as much. Its disgusting, but I will not judge today. People are sick, some really are and this is one thing that I figured from 'M'. But what is heart breaking is that these sexual endeavors leave children scarred, and when I say scarred I mean for lifetime. There are ways to perceive it, some render helplessly and surrender themselves to a life of emotional confinement whereas some liberate too much and loose control. But one major aspect that I have noted is the popular glorification of this act. For example take 'Lolita', Vladimir Nabokov was valorized and criticized, his novel is now read and appreciated throughout the world. I am not judging, at least not yet, because I liked reading and watching it. When you see that girl through the eyes of that man you notice curves and wetness in places, the water glistening on her body, her hair falling lightly on her shoulders, the red lipstick and physical movements. We see so because he wants us to see that, but the end is brutal, justified and tragic. The man is killed and suffers for very long, perhaps not more than the girl herself. It made me wonder about voluntary involvement of some young kids into these acts. But that is again too vast a domain with far too many arguments.
'Hard Candy', though I did not like it much, but it made me think. I have known people who have been sexually abused as children. I know and understand that pain and helplessness, I also understand this need for revenge, a satisfactory vengeance. But is vengeance ever really satisfying. Look at the character of Page, she goes around castrating and killing men with slightest suspicion of pedophilia. Would I do that? Yes. But not just pedophiles, but to every man who ever tried getting too comfortable on the bus, or the man who exposed himself. I don't detest these men, I just feel they are of no use. There is an overpowering sadness and then that is replaced by anger. Hayley (Page's character's name in Hard Candy) is going through this struggle. She no longer seeks vengeance, rather she seeks a way out of the suffering inside her by subjecting other men to it.
Now I am shifting my focus from PEDOPHILIA. Its incomprehensible sometimes to see men and women trying so hard SO HARD to feel safe. Not with a partner, not within family, they don't have to feel threatened to want to protect themselves. This safety is not coming out of relationships, rather from a lack of some specific emotions that one is programmed to receive from the society. Since they are born, they are subjected to movies about hopeful love, happy and ideal state of families, a proper and healthy public image and also the ideal physical appearance. I am still trying very hard to not be didactic. But it is this neutrality that pushes boundaries and drags people to an extremity. There are so many people around me who have taken up the duty of pretense. They feel too uncomfortable and don't find people trustworthy enough of any real revelations. But these revelations, they are not some dark secrets that would take away their privacy or feel offensive, it will rob off their safety. The security that took decades to establish.
This might not be unhealthy, but its tiring isn't it? Its tiring to wake up everyday and pretending you have a goal to accomplish, pretending that you will achieve that state of sheer unadulterated happiness some day, pretending to be the most entertaining person who have the wildest stories and pretending that you are exciting. Whereas somewhere inside, when for once you are alone and you are watching an apparently funny movie. You laughed your ass out with people and friends around, you pretended to have actually liked it, but that day when you put it up on your own, you felt nothing, absolutely nothing.
It is not hilarious. The condition of bondage, this pledge that we have made to ourselves in exchange for security is fragile. Its ephemeral. Don't get lost behind that proper and sophisticated mask like 'American Psycho' ( yes, i know, too extreme).
Just make a little promise to yourself, that when you are over all that facade, you will put that comedy on and not move a muscle. Be honest to yourself. Once in a while. Confess.
Confess that you'd be better off.
Accept.!
(y)
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