About Elegy (if you did not see the movie don’t read this)
. I saw the movie Elegy. Highly recommended by critics, Elegy is a story about a bachelor (divorced) professor David (Ben Kingsley) living in NYC who has a steady uncommitted relationship (booty call for adults) with a businesswoman Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson) and gets involved with a Cuban American former student Consuela (Penelope Cruz). It is a lovely movie that portrays how some people live and deal with their issues: by living them, talking about them with friends, by following their guts, by hanging in there somehow. David’s relationship with Consuela is haunted by the fact the he is older and protects himself from getting too much involved even if he loves her (well, I could not imagine him hanging out with her Cuban family). She leaves and he keeps living his life: working, dealing with his son, talking to his friend, facing some realities and having his booty calls. Until the day he comes home and there’s a message in the machine. He thinks she’s married or sort. They meet: she looks weird. She is sick. Breast cancer. What a sap… Why? Why? Why?… I accidentaly bumped into the meaning of the word Elegy and it seems to be related to mourning and something sad. If I only knew that before…
. I know it is how the movie goes and I can’t change it but I can’t help but wonder how much better it would be if she would come really hot (I can’t imagine a woman meeting an old flame without dressing up, even in the deathbed) and say: I found somebody else but can’t forget you. Or I’m getting married and I want you to come to our wedding, write my vows. Or I got married and I need your sperm. Something like that. It would be immensely more interesting and require much more real life decisions. As it is, it’s hard to know what is real love and what is plain disguised pity. Oh, well! (I posted this comment at Yahoo but I don’t think it was up) I kind of like it.
. Do we look fat?
. Yesterday I was amazed with the number of fat people in the train. New York is not a ‘fat city’ and generally most people are decently in shape, but for some reason I got in the train yesterday and there were about a dozen very obese people in the same car. I just noticed it. When I came back home, I saw this ad on the bus saying that eating meat is a major factor in global warming, which is a hell of a thought. I smiled. I got home and watched the Tyra Banks Show with these gigantic women who pose with lingerie and/or naked in internet sites. They are those deffensive “understanding” fat women who are proud of their bodies and are very aggressive on making their point. Pretty scary! Later a 20/20 feature about people that have an obsession on eating healthy and end up emaciated. Unlike anorexic who see themselves fat, they see themselves trying to be just too healthy, I guess. They sure are not as proud as the Tyra Show girls. Maybe they are stopping Global Warming. Who knows? That was an interesting sequence of issues on a Friday. So I took some time imagining the world having those gigantic women and our role models (as opposed to the “skinny Hollywood” stars). Everyone hoping for a size 40/with 450lbs. Then, maybe, instead of a pandemic of obesity we would have people looking fit and nice, but deppressed and damaged. And the Tyra Show would be about fit people saying that they are proud of looking good (ha!). I personally know and don’t like when I am fat. I don’t want to be like anybody else and I am just self conscious that I look much better when I’m fit. However I look really bad too skinny so I try to keep it in perspective. And for sure it is not in the eyes of the beholder.
. You know how I feel, right?
Beijo tchau,
Marcia
Tags: Being Fat, Elegy film review
