Your Regularly Scheduled Programming
This weekend some dear friends of mine from Massachusetts came out to visit. We spent Saturday gallavanting all over - downtown for a dance workshop, out to Jamesville to visit the Yarn Cupboard, to Skaneatelas for lunch and chocolate and a quick peek at the lake (before the wind drove us back inside), to North Syracuse to visit Sheep Thrills, Wegmans to get cheese and bread and then back to my house for a picnic in the living room.
We stuffed ourselves with brie, cheddar, goat cheese, gouda, prosciutto, salami, mushroom pate, and bread with raw honey and fig paste, sipped sweet wine, and caught up on everything that's happened over the last month.
My lovely guests each gifted me a skein of yarn during their visit!!!
On the left, my very first skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn in "Eggplant" to be the P.S. Mitts I have coveted for so long. On the right, another of my faves - a hank of Madelinetosh Vintage, this time in the "Graphite" colorway (basically charcoal black-gray, but with the slightest tinge of green) - not sure what this will be yet, but I love it already!
Some new fiber arrived this weekend, as well:
8 oz of Superwash Merino from Fiber Optic in the #9 Black Coffee Colorway
and still on the way from Alaska:
4 oz. of Rambouillet (which will be a new fiber for me) in the "Woodland Fairy" colorway
Finally, new fiber from Cosmic Fibers, which Carrie has been holding for me since last month:
8 oz. of Superwash BFL in the "Dead Roses" colorway
On the wheel now:
4 oz. of Merino/Tussah from the Woolen Rabbit, spun up as thread to be chain-plied into what I hope will be a 3-ply fingering weight yarn to become some sort of lacey shawl (I'm seriously considering the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty). Been working on this one since last Friday and I'm about 3/4 done spinning the singles. I should have the batch plied and washed by the weekend.
In other news, the boy and I went to see Suckerpunch yesterday. I decided it was worth paying to see it in the theater since 80% of the film's value seemed to be "ooooh pretty pictures!" On that level, I got what I expected: over the top, intense visuals with some fantasy and fighting and girls in short skirts. The actual plot of the film jarred me, however, in two different ways...
I wasn't expecting much in the way of intellectual stimulation from this movie, but right from the start it demanded that the viewer find something poignant in the characters' struggle to be free from a less-than-pleasant reality, and further demanded that the viewer not only be able to conflate the three levels of "reality" on which the movie takes place -
1) the "real" world, where the girls are confined to a mental institution (this realm is limited only to the very first and very last scenes of the film)
2) the "perceived" world of the girls in the institution, which takes the form of a brothel, and rather than a therapist putting the girls through the motions of play therapy in a "theater," the therapist becomes a madame, training the girls to dance for the brothel's clientele (most of the film takes place here)
3) the "fantasy" realm which can only be accessed while the main character is dancing, wherein the girls act out wild battle scenes that only vaguely correspond to their quest in the 2nd realm - they have to steal a kitchen knife, for example, so on realm 2, the girls are in the kitchen, distracting the cook to get the knife, but this is represented on realm 3 as a quest to hijack a train full of armed androids in order to diffuse and steal a bomb ("Code Name: Kitchenknife").
- but that the viewer also be able to understand the significance of the three, often disparate, plotlines happening on each of those levels of "reality."
I suppose the battle scenes on the fantasy realm provide better entertainment value than the girls' "actual" quests to steal a map, lighter, knife, and key from various characters in the brothel/institution, but that whole layer of the movie seemed to serve no other purpose beyond heightened visual stimulation, which, entertaining though it was, seemed to prevent the rest of the film from developing any depth.
The movie is, apparently, not based on anything outside the writer/director's own imagination, but it had the feel of a movie based on an Anime series or a video-game. The scenes on Realms 1 and 2 of "reality" would be the plot / character building scenes between battles, and the scenes in the fantasy realm would be the part of the video game where the players are in control.
SPOILER ALERT:
At the end of the film, Babydoll (Emily Browning) who has been trying to escape her fate of a lobotomy / being prostituted to the "High Roller" (depending on the realm of reality) must make a sacrifice in order for her plan to work and it turns out that the sacrifice she must make is to stay behind in the brothel/institution while her only remaining companion escapes to freedom to "live for them all". Babydoll then goes willingly to her fate - here we jump back to Realm 1 for her lobotomy, with no reference to how succumbing to the High Roller would grant her freedom. We assume her plan worked when we hear about her peaceful reaction to the process of being lobotomized (represented by a look in her eyes, which the doctor describes, but which the audience never really gets to see, and a serene facial expression, which is hidden for several scenes to build up a significance the facial expression itself fails to convey) and the audience is left to puzzle out the plot threads, which are laid side by side without ever being tied together.
My interpretation of the film was this:
When Babydoll sacrifices herself and chooses to stay behind so that Sweet Pea can be free, she comes to the conclusion that Sweet Pea can (as she has in the past) live successfully out in the world, whereas Babydoll has nothing to go home to and no one to live for. Being free of the institution would not free her from the horrors of her reality - her parents and sister are still dead, her evil stepfather still has control of her assets, and she has no experience living on her own to ensure that she would make it, would avoid being caught and returned to the mental institution, or (worse) returned to the care of her evil stepfather. The freedom she seeks is freedom FROM reality, not just from the institution.
The film has already set up a world in which Babydoll can function successfully, can handle and survive difficult situations, can be a strong and happy person - the world of her own imagining. While I don't think a real lobotomy would necessarily leave enough brain function for a patient to continue experiencing a complex imagination-world, the film seemed to suggest that the lobotomy allowed Babydoll to check out of her horrible reality once and for all and find freedom in the paradise of her own mind.
In this sense, the film resonates with the themes of Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - a piece of literature I deeply enjoyed, but which, I know, has left others feeling as confused and unfulfilled as Suckerpunch seems to have left the majority of its viewers.
I don't know that the message I saw was conveyed in a successful way, nor am I necessarily satisfied by the way this film wrapped up. In many ways it still felt flat and contrived, but it did manage to bother me on a deeper level than I'm bothered by most movies that just don't work, and the fact that it drew me in enough to actually care about the message at the end suggests, for me anyway, that the film was successful at least on some level.
Still, I agree with my boy that movies today aim to create the feeling of poignancy without conveying anything truly significant - Inception, for instance, which seemed to wrap up until the very last moment which left me feeling like I had missed something, like there was something deeper going on throughout the whole movie that I would catch if I just went back to see it a few more times, only to realize (when I did see it again) that I hadn't missed anything at all.
We stuffed ourselves with brie, cheddar, goat cheese, gouda, prosciutto, salami, mushroom pate, and bread with raw honey and fig paste, sipped sweet wine, and caught up on everything that's happened over the last month.
My lovely guests each gifted me a skein of yarn during their visit!!!
On the left, my very first skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn in "Eggplant" to be the P.S. Mitts I have coveted for so long. On the right, another of my faves - a hank of Madelinetosh Vintage, this time in the "Graphite" colorway (basically charcoal black-gray, but with the slightest tinge of green) - not sure what this will be yet, but I love it already!
Some new fiber arrived this weekend, as well:
8 oz of Superwash Merino from Fiber Optic in the #9 Black Coffee Colorway
and still on the way from Alaska:
4 oz. of Rambouillet (which will be a new fiber for me) in the "Woodland Fairy" colorway
Finally, new fiber from Cosmic Fibers, which Carrie has been holding for me since last month:
8 oz. of Superwash BFL in the "Dead Roses" colorway
On the wheel now:
4 oz. of Merino/Tussah from the Woolen Rabbit, spun up as thread to be chain-plied into what I hope will be a 3-ply fingering weight yarn to become some sort of lacey shawl (I'm seriously considering the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty). Been working on this one since last Friday and I'm about 3/4 done spinning the singles. I should have the batch plied and washed by the weekend.
In other news, the boy and I went to see Suckerpunch yesterday. I decided it was worth paying to see it in the theater since 80% of the film's value seemed to be "ooooh pretty pictures!" On that level, I got what I expected: over the top, intense visuals with some fantasy and fighting and girls in short skirts. The actual plot of the film jarred me, however, in two different ways...
I wasn't expecting much in the way of intellectual stimulation from this movie, but right from the start it demanded that the viewer find something poignant in the characters' struggle to be free from a less-than-pleasant reality, and further demanded that the viewer not only be able to conflate the three levels of "reality" on which the movie takes place -
1) the "real" world, where the girls are confined to a mental institution (this realm is limited only to the very first and very last scenes of the film)
2) the "perceived" world of the girls in the institution, which takes the form of a brothel, and rather than a therapist putting the girls through the motions of play therapy in a "theater," the therapist becomes a madame, training the girls to dance for the brothel's clientele (most of the film takes place here)
3) the "fantasy" realm which can only be accessed while the main character is dancing, wherein the girls act out wild battle scenes that only vaguely correspond to their quest in the 2nd realm - they have to steal a kitchen knife, for example, so on realm 2, the girls are in the kitchen, distracting the cook to get the knife, but this is represented on realm 3 as a quest to hijack a train full of armed androids in order to diffuse and steal a bomb ("Code Name: Kitchenknife").
- but that the viewer also be able to understand the significance of the three, often disparate, plotlines happening on each of those levels of "reality."
I suppose the battle scenes on the fantasy realm provide better entertainment value than the girls' "actual" quests to steal a map, lighter, knife, and key from various characters in the brothel/institution, but that whole layer of the movie seemed to serve no other purpose beyond heightened visual stimulation, which, entertaining though it was, seemed to prevent the rest of the film from developing any depth.
The movie is, apparently, not based on anything outside the writer/director's own imagination, but it had the feel of a movie based on an Anime series or a video-game. The scenes on Realms 1 and 2 of "reality" would be the plot / character building scenes between battles, and the scenes in the fantasy realm would be the part of the video game where the players are in control.
SPOILER ALERT:
At the end of the film, Babydoll (Emily Browning) who has been trying to escape her fate of a lobotomy / being prostituted to the "High Roller" (depending on the realm of reality) must make a sacrifice in order for her plan to work and it turns out that the sacrifice she must make is to stay behind in the brothel/institution while her only remaining companion escapes to freedom to "live for them all". Babydoll then goes willingly to her fate - here we jump back to Realm 1 for her lobotomy, with no reference to how succumbing to the High Roller would grant her freedom. We assume her plan worked when we hear about her peaceful reaction to the process of being lobotomized (represented by a look in her eyes, which the doctor describes, but which the audience never really gets to see, and a serene facial expression, which is hidden for several scenes to build up a significance the facial expression itself fails to convey) and the audience is left to puzzle out the plot threads, which are laid side by side without ever being tied together.
My interpretation of the film was this:
When Babydoll sacrifices herself and chooses to stay behind so that Sweet Pea can be free, she comes to the conclusion that Sweet Pea can (as she has in the past) live successfully out in the world, whereas Babydoll has nothing to go home to and no one to live for. Being free of the institution would not free her from the horrors of her reality - her parents and sister are still dead, her evil stepfather still has control of her assets, and she has no experience living on her own to ensure that she would make it, would avoid being caught and returned to the mental institution, or (worse) returned to the care of her evil stepfather. The freedom she seeks is freedom FROM reality, not just from the institution.
The film has already set up a world in which Babydoll can function successfully, can handle and survive difficult situations, can be a strong and happy person - the world of her own imagining. While I don't think a real lobotomy would necessarily leave enough brain function for a patient to continue experiencing a complex imagination-world, the film seemed to suggest that the lobotomy allowed Babydoll to check out of her horrible reality once and for all and find freedom in the paradise of her own mind.
In this sense, the film resonates with the themes of Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - a piece of literature I deeply enjoyed, but which, I know, has left others feeling as confused and unfulfilled as Suckerpunch seems to have left the majority of its viewers.
I don't know that the message I saw was conveyed in a successful way, nor am I necessarily satisfied by the way this film wrapped up. In many ways it still felt flat and contrived, but it did manage to bother me on a deeper level than I'm bothered by most movies that just don't work, and the fact that it drew me in enough to actually care about the message at the end suggests, for me anyway, that the film was successful at least on some level.
Still, I agree with my boy that movies today aim to create the feeling of poignancy without conveying anything truly significant - Inception, for instance, which seemed to wrap up until the very last moment which left me feeling like I had missed something, like there was something deeper going on throughout the whole movie that I would catch if I just went back to see it a few more times, only to realize (when I did see it again) that I hadn't missed anything at all.