That's Just Insipid!

I was affected all afternoon by my forth viewing of Before Sunrise; I screened it for the students traveling with Amanda and I next week in Eastern Europe (Budapest, Prague, Vienna, and Berlin). Walking back to my apartment in spring-like air, sunny, I was kept in the feelings of the final moments of the film. There is just so much with which to identify: the nameless feelings Delpy and Hawke manage to convey I so readily resonate because I've felt them too, or something like them. The feeling of absence in those last frames made me ache, the feeling of the freedom of Europe and my memories of it, the ache of thinking about being in Vienna for the first time but not quite like they were, the comfort and sustaining joy of living with Amanda in my life, but the sudden absence of her (she was in play rehearsal only a hundred yards away). I haven't been this pulled into a film since my childhood affairs with the Star Wars trilogy, and this despite subsequent coats of knowledge, truth, experience, cynicism, elitism, and the advent of adulthood. Despite (and in fact because of) the characters being played by actors at their craft, and despite (an because of) the artificialities of filmmaking, Before Sunrise emits itself in magic frequencies, with immaculate details and exuberant, truthful writing, and it seems to sustain a spell over me each time I watch it. I suspect living as I have been in the warmth of positivity (and perhaps, as a result, to close to naivity) and idealism, and having embraced so much of the sensuality of life (good food and drink, travel, art and ideas, love), it is only filmmaking like this that I can call truly divine, that which rattles the personal elements in both my heart and mind.

Poker Metaphor #2: In poker, as in life, unfounded hubris does not usually pay. A good player is always willing to admit that someone else has the better hand, even when he is confident in his. Many go through life believing themselves to have the best tennis serve or the most personable disposition or the most perfect children, and to an extent this sort of pride is natural and healthy, but when one becomes consumed with the belief that they and theirs are infallible and superior, disaster can result. Failing to adequately observe the cards on the table and the actions of others, in poker or business or in any life decision, simply because of confidence in one's own current situation, can be disastrous. Taking into account all given information is always a must. Many card players, and many people, make this mistake in big or small ways all the time. There's always someone better.