Mar
4
New Favorite Movie
Filed Under Entertainment
As of last night I have a new favorite movie. The only way it could be more surprising is if it had subtitles, I don’t care for subtitles. I turned on the TV, and there the movie was. It is in black and white, it was made in 1965, how old were you in 65? No need to answer.
The movie isn’t out on DVD. Netflix ain’t got it. Oddly, I think you would like it. It is about a man, Jason Robards, who’s sister comes to visit. She brings a blue parakeet, a dead gold fish, two trunks and a six year old son. She goes out for a pack of filter tipped cigarettes and comes back seven years later. He has given away the parakeet, flushed the gold fish down the toilet, she wants the two trunks and the kid has effortlessly grown seven years older. The movie has dazzling dialog as social workers try and take the kid away because Jason is just too light, fun and anti-culture. I am amazed at how much of the dialogue I remember and how seeing this good a movie reminds me that I have let my criteria for movies slide pretty low.
Dare I go on? You will find me to be passionate, endlessly, about what I am passionate about. The female social worker falls for Jason, of course. She spends the night, undercutting her possible relationship with the other social worker, also of course. The next morning as she is asking for a key there is a knock at the door. She says “You better get that.” He says “Is that OK? ”I have nobody to hide from she says” after the first blush of romance with her new man. He goes to the door, it is the male social worker. She, runs as fast as she can into the closet. Guess she did have someone to hide from. The male social worker comes in, and says “Where is she?” Jason says “She is in the closet.” ”No, really, where is she, her parents are worried about her and so am I.”
“Really, she is in the closet, I wouldn’t lie to you.”
The male social worker goes to the closet, opens it, looks for too long, slowly and carefully closes the closet door to about eight inches. He walks back over and says “She really is in the closet. What is she doing in the closet?”
“Maybe she likes closets? Shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
The male and Jason proceed to have the conversation they would have if she wasn’t in the closet, interrupted once by Jason walking over and handing a cup of coffee into the closet.
Back to Jerry, I mean what really is the point of life anyway? He says smiling. That is not a rhetorical question; I hope.
Love, Me
PS There is more fun dialogue. Jason says to the social worker “She, the sister, would do anything for her son but get married.”
“Funny, for a while she would marry anybody, then, when she had her son she wouldn’t marry anybody at all. Not being sure what last name to give her son she was hesitant to give him a first name. I told him that he could have any name he wanted until he was thirteen and then he had to settle on one name. Dog’s names were big for a while, Rover, Spot, names like that. Just last week he came back from the library with a new card with the name Dr Sidney Rosenberg on it.”
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2 Responses to “New Favorite Movie”
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Jerry,
I do not understand luck.
And I just got a big dose/reminder (to tears a reminder!!)
of how lucky i am that :
you are in my life
that I am in your life
that you brought me into your life
that I brought you into mine
however tangential, frequent or infrequent these reminders come.
_____
do you have a reverence and appreciation of EVERY moment?
(ie the acceptance of the death of the intensity of the joy of the moment)
(how does Presence fit into that?)
___________
‘A Thousand Clowns’ is the name. (7 of Nominations and 2 wins, one an Oscar) I would never have thought Jason Robards had such a character in him. I rented it this weekend on VHS. I liked the movie a lot. I can certainly see why you like it.
Some of my favorite lines (perhaps out of context, but you have seen the movie, so you’ll get them):
“No, Sandra, his mothers chest did not light up.”
“I’ve thought about it, and I love you.” “Well, I’ve thought about it, and I love you, too.”
(a sweet combo of logic and heart)
“If things aren’t funny then they are only exactly what they are. Then life is just one long dental appointment interrupted occasionally by something exciting like waiting or falling asleep.”
____________________
Your question about ‘what is the point of life?’, it is NOT rhetorical yet, for me..at least not ALL the time.
I am still in search of the point of MY life, once i find that, I think it won’t be my life anymore but the worlds life, and I get to live through it delightedly. Yes, there IS a place I feel I need to get to. I may be there already, I just don’t know it…so let me know it already.
Patience, Zoe, Patience!!
Love,
me
Jerry & Zoe,
1000 Clowns and I are old friends. Ran the film ad nauseum on a 16mm projector for the English dept at the first college I attended.
Back then, Nick would have been the last person in the film I would have identified with. Now he seems like the most sane character in the story!
Like Zoe, I get reminders of you in the form of regular appearances in my cinematic dreamscape.
Action!
With light and love
Another me