Althouse: "How can you keep on loving someone when he turns your world upside down?"

July 14, 2012

"How can you keep on loving someone when he turns your world upside down?"

18 comments:

edutcher said...: It's pretty hard if he insists on impoverishing you and everybody you care about just because he disapproves of the neighborhood in which you live.; 7/14/12, 9:46 AM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: lame; 7/14/12, 9:56 AM
ndspinelli said...: It's the Dog Days of Summer. You just have to grind through them sometimes.; 7/14/12, 10:19 AM
pm317 said...: Easy for you to say. Poor Gail Collins. She has to worry about her whole credibility what being a 0bot and all, unlike you.; 7/14/12, 10:28 AM
Robert Cook said...: Not really very clever, as the movie is a love story...and therein lies the tragedy of it.

Cronenberg, I believe, has spoken of the trial people must endure whose partners go through such devastating changes, whether through illness (cancer) or through addiction. How does this affect the healthy partner? How long can he or she stay true to the sick partner? Can the relationship survive the calamity that has taken place to one party in it?

I am a longtime admirer of Cronenberg's films, but they do sometimes have a sort of clinical feel about them, as if he were observing from on high the foolishness of the mere mortals below. His best films have been those that really depicted the roiling emotions of his characters: THE DEAD ZONE, THE FLY, and his masterpiece, THE BROOD.; 7/14/12, 10:34 AM
Robert Cook said...: I'll add that Cronenberg was brave enough to adapt two unadaptable books to screen, NAKED LUNCH and CRASH.

He didn't even attempt, really, to adapt NAKED LUNCH, but created a story about its germination, through a depiction and elaboration on events from the life of its author, William Burroughs.

CRASH was a cinematic telling of the events of Ballard's novel, but it seemed completely apart. While Cronenberg's film felt icy and removed, Ballard's novel really is disturbing and difficult to get through. (I tried nearly 30 years ago and couldn't get through it; just before Cronenberg's film was released, I had another go at it. It was no less disturbing and difficult than I had remembered it, but I pushed myself to finish it. When I had got to the end, I really felt it was--and is--a great novel, in no small part because of its unpleasantness.); 7/14/12, 10:44 AM
pm317 said...: Obama ate the fly he killed (in the other thread) and became one (in this thread). Can you still love him?; 7/14/12, 10:47 AM
Ann Althouse said...: At one point in The Fly, Brundle's fly component is making him very sexually potent, and this is a positive thing for the Geena Davis character, if I remember correctly. But then she discovers some weird, wiry hairs on his back...; 7/14/12, 10:55 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Not really very clever, as the movie is a love story...and therein lies the tragedy of it."

It's clever to take what is horrible and present it as comedy. There's a great version of the trailer for "The Shining" that does that.

What I really like about this "Fly" trailer is that in fact most romantic comedies really do begin with a relationship that in real life wouldn't be good, but in the movie it gets great.

So when we see their relationship looking quirky as if it's going to be a romantic comedy -- i.e., that it will ultimately be great -- but we know that in the actual movie it's utterly horrible, that gives us some insight into... something.

Like, in real life, when it's quirky at first, maybe you really should run. It's going to go bad, not good.

Anyway, I just watched the ending to that movie again, and there's this point where -- spoiler alert -- she grabs his face and his entire jawbone comes off in her hand.

Quite the metaphor.; 7/14/12, 11:02 AM
Robert Cook said...: "It's clever to take what is horrible and present it as comedy. There's a great version of the trailer for "The Shining" that does that."

Okay, granted. This wasn't an example of someone doing this successfully.; 7/14/12, 11:04 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I've tried various Cronenberg and not managed to force myself to see others, but none of the other things have worked on me like "The Fly."; 7/14/12, 11:07 AM
Robert Cook said...: I recommend THE BROOD. It was made while Cronenberg was going through a difficult divorce and he uses the devices of horror/SF to externalize (literally) the anger and hostility of people in such circumstances.; 7/14/12, 11:17 AM
Anonymous said...: In the top five films thread of the other day I commented on how hot Jeff Blum was in the fly, until he grew those wiry (I misspelled wiry, wirey, surprise!) hairs on his back.

Glad to see we agree on this. At least I think we agree:); 7/14/12, 11:35 AM
jr565 said...: Ann wrote:
It's clever to take what is horrible and present it as comedy. There's a great version of the trailer for "The Shining" that does that.

Do you mean this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6raCCmAFk

One of the funnier of the trailer parodies.; 7/14/12, 11:45 AM
Anonymous said...: That should be Jeff Goldblum.; 7/14/12, 11:51 AM
David said...: I will not watch films that scare the living crap out of me. This is one of those films.; 7/14/12, 7:34 PM
bagoh20 said...: The scariest part for me was when she was pregnant and realized what that meant. I don't think insect family relations work out any better than their politics. Remember there is no Father's Day on the Praying Mantis calendar, and I'm sure there is no Mother's day on the Fly's.; 7/14/12, 9:27 PM
Methadras said...: Brundlefly was awesome.; 7/15/12, 7:42 PM