Before Sunset

Maybe it is the hopeful romantic in me, but after we watched “Before Sunrise” I wrote in my blog post that I thought Jesse and Celine would meet up six months later.  I truly felt like both of the characters made such a connection in Vienna during the one night they had with each other, so I was so surprised and a little disheartened to find out that they did not end up meeting each other and in fact, it took nine years for them to see each other again.  As it would turn out, Celine could not meet up with Jesse in Vienna when they were supposed to because her grandmother passed away shortly before they were supposed to meet up and because they did not exchange phone numbers, she was unable to call Jesse and tell him that.  Since Jesse and Celine did not meet up, they continued their lives without each other.  Jesse got married, had a son, and wrote a bestselling novel based on his time with Celine.  Celine, on the other hand, has a boyfriend and is a photojournalist and environmental activist.  Because Jesse is on a book tour in Paris, he has to catch a plane an hour later after meeting up with Celine again, so the two only have a short time to connect again like their first meeting.  I think that time plays a huge factor with these two characters.  In the first film, the couple only had a night to spend time together before they had to part again.  In this film, the couple only had an hour before Jesse’s plane to go back to the United States.  Because the couple always has a restricted time allotted to them, they have to get down to their core and show who they really are.  This says a lot about how sometimes traditional dating is not always the best approach.  When people usually date, they are expected to be dating for a year before they can be serious and in love, however, this is not always realistic.  Traditional dating leaves a lot of room for “fluff” because you can pretend about who you are and not be as up front.  Whereas, Jesse and Celine have to be straightforward with each other because they have no choice and they find true love.  An example of this “love at first sight” concept can be seen with Khloe Kardashian.  She made headlines in magazines all over the world when she met her now husband and married him thirty days later.  Khloe Kardashian was scrutinized for this in the media because society does not accept love that is not traditional.  However, there is no traditional way for people to fall in love, which is shown with Jesse and Celine.  Also, another important idea of time in the films is that it relates to love in general.  Just like how Jesse and Celine were constricted with time, couples in general are restricted in time.  People never know when their life will end, and so it is important for people to love when they are given the opportunity to even if it does not last.  Jesse and Celine did not know for sure if they would ever see each other again, but they loved each other anyways in the time they had because when it comes to love, time should never be wasted.

Steve Almond Lecture

I'd like to start off by saying that Steve Almond is without a doubt one of my favorite speakers thus far! In his writings, he perfectly combines love and desire to create romantic and lustful scenes in his stories that are still very realistic.  The reality of sex is a key element throughout Almond's writings and is something he emphasized in his lecture.  In today's society, people especially young men have this fantasy about sex.  Sex is so quick and easy to obtain these days because of porn on the internet, but there is no reality to porn.  Yes, the actors in porn are very well experienced in the physical aspect of sex, but they completely lack the emotional side of sex when two people connect with each other.  Another aspect that many young men do not understand is that porn appears to be perfect because there is a crew doing the lighting, the makeup, the editing, and the scenes are not done all at once, so this makes up for why there are no awkward moments in porn like there is in real life sex.  The most interesting story that Almond read was without a doubt "Skull".  The story is told by a narrator who is hanging out with his friend getting drunk.  The narrator's friend goes on to tell the narrator that his girlfriend has a glass eye because she was shot in the eye with a play gun as a child.  As the friend goes into more detail, he expresses that his girlfriend likes to take her eye out and have him massaged her skull tissue in a very sexual and graphic manner.  The line that stuck out to me the most and I wrote it down was "that's what we all want, a lover to accept the most damaged part of us".  The woman fears rejection because even though her body is very gorgeous, she has a scar that she feels insecure about.  Therefore, to expose her weakness to her boyfriend shows that she trusts him because he accepts her.  This idea of acceptance in the story is ultimately what everyone strives for.  Everyone has a physical or emotional part of us that is damaged that we try to hide.  However in  reality, all we want is for someone to see that damaged part of us, accept it, and love us anyways.  While this story may be a little out there, it gets down to the core of human desire which is not always purely sexual, but sometimes emotional.

Sexuality and the Police State in "Halfaouine"

In Ferid Boughedir's film "Halfaouine", the main character, Noura who is a twelve-year-old boy, comes of age in Tunisia during the 1960's.  The movies plays a lot on nostalgia of Noura missing the previous Tunisia he knew as a child because the current state of Tunisia is controlled under a strict dictator.  The movie also touches upon Noura trying to be an adult in a world with separate spheres.  Therefore, there's a parallel between patriarchal oppression and the brutality of the police state throughout the movie.  One theme that I find very interesting in this film is the concept that "eroticism is a form of liberation."  At twelve years old, Noura still goes to the baths with his mother and all the other women in the town, and it is here that he begins to become aroused by the female body.  This movie takes place in an Arabic country, but sexual expression is very opposite than one would think.  Noura wants to express his sexual desires, like when he has sex with the maid, but he struggles with living in a society that promotes "penis dominance."  Because Noura is an Arabic male, he needs to suppress his desires in order to become a patriarchal figure, which will ultimately prove him to be an adult.  The irony that I find is that while typically the men should be free to express their sexual desires, in Tunisia, they have to suppress it while the women are free to enjoy the pleasures of life.  It is also ironic that Tunisia, still an Arabic country, has equal rights for women unlike any other Arab country.  It seems that neopatriarchy really does cause dysfunction because the males have to suppress their desires to be seen as dominant, when Boughedir is trying to say that everyone should "follow your desire".  In the film, we see women wearing the typical headdress that Arabic women are supposed to wear, but they wear it loosely and they even take it off.  This speaks a lot about how women in Tunisia are more control of their bodies and sexual desires than in most places in the world.  Usually, especially in Arabic countries, the men are in control as the patriarch, but also in terms of their sexual desires.  In many Arabic countries, men have multiple wives, and can have sex with whomever they please.  It is very interesting because in Tunisia, it is the women who are the ultimate temptresses.  We see this in the scene when the two young boys follow the girls at the market.  The boys and all the men are drooling over the women, not knowing how to act, while the women, even some younger girls, yield seduction and have control over making men want them.  It seems that while patriarchy does exist in Tunisia, it really is not as powerful as people think.  While men do technically control their households, they are ultimately pawns of the seduction of women’s sexual desires.  I think that this says a lot about how influential desires can be.  I think that this movie shows that desires can be more powerful than any other influence like the police state or patriarchy, which is why it should not be oppressed.