Althouse: It was a deeply serene evening.

October 12, 2007

It was a deeply serene evening.

24 comments:

Maxine Weiss said...: Am I first? How come I'm always first?; 10/12/07, 6:08 PM
Trooper York said...: That's worst Maxine, you are always the worst.; 10/12/07, 6:15 PM
Trooper York said...: So much for a serene evening!; 10/12/07, 6:16 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Hi, Dr. Helen !; 10/12/07, 6:21 PM
Anthony said...: Stop this please -- you are really making me miss Brooklyn.; 10/12/07, 6:54 PM
sean said...: When I come home from out of town at night, I always think "Oz!"; 10/12/07, 7:00 PM
J. Cricket said...: What?! No pot shot at Al Gore?!; 10/12/07, 7:08 PM
Trooper York said...: Well hello there
My, it's been a long long time
How am I doin'
Oh well, I guess I'm doin' fine
It's been so long now and it seems that
It was only yesterday
Ain't it funny how time slips away

How's your new love
I hope that he's doin' fine
Heard you told him, yes baby
That you'd love him till the end of time
Well you know, that's the same thing
That you told me
Well, it seems like just the other day
Ain't it funny how time slips away

Gotta go now
Guess I'll see you hanging round
Don't know when though
Never know when I'll be back in town
But I remember what I told you
That in time you're gonna pay

Well ain't it surprisin' how time slips away
Yeah, ain't it surprisin' how time slips away

(Al Green 1998); 10/12/07, 7:16 PM
Original Mike said...: Cool.; 10/12/07, 7:28 PM
rcocean said...: What a great picture.

Seeing NYC reminds me of the NYC during the 2004 Republican convention. In my dream world, the USA would look like that 2004 convention. People were happy. They were Christian. They were tolerant. They defended America.; 10/12/07, 7:30 PM
ricpic said...: Mood indigo.; 10/12/07, 7:35 PM
Ron said...: Ann, you should shoot some video of these scenes sometime and maybe put some music to it!; 10/12/07, 10:50 PM
Revenant said...: Very nice pictures. You really got lucky with your location for your stay in the city.; 10/13/07, 12:59 AM
hdhouse said...: NOW WHAT DID I EMAIL YOU ABOUT ANN....SEE!; 10/13/07, 2:58 AM
Bissage said...: (1) Both ricpic and Ron are exactly right. Those photos are musical.

(2) And that reminds me of the summer I spent at Uncle Duke’s farm. He had a fussy cow that ate nothing but Kentucky Bluegrass. Whenever it mooed, it “Mood Indigo”. [Rimshot].

(3) Really, those photos need no music. And that reminds me of a great story about this photo told by the photographer. The photo was of this guy and it was hanging in a gallery and an elderly man was standing there, staring at it, motionless, for the longest time. Curious, the curator approached the man and asked what he found so engrossing. The man replied, “I’m listening to the music.” Great story, irrespective of its veracity.

(4) And even after all these years, isn’t the opening of “Manhattan” still wonderful? I thought it was in English, but I was doing a lot of acid back in the hippy days, so . . .

(5) Seriously, we rented it last week. I found it much, much, much, much, much creepier than I remembered it. The whole Springtime/Autumn love thing is disturbing enough, but there’s this scene at the end where Woody Allen shows up at Mariel Hemmingway’s apartment lobby to dissuade her from leaving for Europe. Anyway, she does this mature-beyond-her-years monologue thing and the camera stays on her face (adoringly!) the whole time with Woody Allen’s hand in there rubbing her all over. Yuk!

(6) Looks like you really can't go back home again.; 10/13/07, 7:43 AM
Bissage said...: Well, Mrs. Bissage tells me I misremembered; that the hand/face scene is in a bar when he breaks up with her.

Crap!

Still, the final scene is plenty creepy the way it is.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Ha!; 10/13/07, 8:00 AM
Bissage said...: And THAT'S why Mrs. Bissage handles the money!; 10/13/07, 8:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Bissage: Great comment. Thanks!

Hdhouse: ???; 10/13/07, 8:03 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I don't find that scene creepy at all. What I see in the Woody Allen character is a man who knows he's much older and owes her a kind of fatherly support that has to win out over his selfish desire for her. She has to grow away from him and she should. He knows that, but he loves her and will always especially love the girl that she can't continue to be. Well, it is creepy if you start to think he's thinking that she's already growing out of his interest range and just as she'll find a young guy in London, he'll find another young girl in New York.; 10/13/07, 8:38 AM
Bissage said...: (1) You’re very welcome and thanks right back at you!

(2) Here’s the scene from the beginning. More evidence needs to be of record!

(3) What I find creepy, I guess, is the way Allen’s nervous mannerisms camouflage his venal selfishness. He doesn’t love Mariel Hemingway. He wants her youthful beauty and her innocence.

He just got dumped by Keaton and he’s terrified of being alone. His charm and humor used to work on Hemingway and he employs them once again (with a big dollop of earnestness) hoping to lure her back to him against her patent self-interest, contrary to his stated position throughout the movie. But he believes his own bullsh*t.

(4) The very, very end is great:

HEMINGWAY: Six months isn’t so long. Everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people.

With that, Allen’s mind races at both the immediate and the abstract implications. Is this true? Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no. He looks away in disappointment and shame when he finds his answer. It is not true. People are rotten. Especially him.

But she believes it to be true. And that’s beautiful and that’s why he smiles and the movie ends right there.

It would be nice to see that last smile as a recognition by Allen that she’s leaving forever, that he’ll never see her again, and that that is best for everyone, especially her. But I think the better view is that he's simply adoring her beauty, the same as he always did. Allen doesn't grow in that instant. Such a transformation was never foreshadowed. It's too late for him.

If we value consistency of character, and we need to extrapolate, then that smile indicates Allen's hope that she’ll return to him in six months and that he can have her – if he wants her. Creepy.

(5) Bissage’s preferred ending? Allen does that indecisive headshaking thing, he has his epiphany, and he says, “Goodbye.”

Only then does he smile at the irony that he finds some hope in the rightness of his failure.

Fade to black.; 10/13/07, 11:52 AM
hdhouse said...: Ann Althouse said...
Bissage: Great comment. Thanks!

Hdhouse: ???"""

read your mail ann; 10/13/07, 12:26 PM
Bissage said...: Professor, I just thought I’d note that the Roman Polanski extradition thing caused me to remember this thread.

Was it really two years ago?

Yes it was.

How time does fly.

wv = asessi. Whenever there is a real estate tax, there is always an assessor, and then there is always an asessi.

(Boooooooooo!); 9/30/09, 9:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Ah! Thanks! It was so interesting reading this again. It feels all clandestine meeting you back here on this serene evening.; 9/30/09, 9:32 PM
Bissage said...: You’ve noted that you like it when people leave comments on old threads.

I thought I’d revisit this one and give it a whirl.

It was fun.

Clandestine fun.; 10/7/09, 4:12 PM