Althouse: Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, "staring at each other for what may be the longest and most painful onscreen marital silence this side of an Ingmar Bergman film."

May 12, 2016

Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, "staring at each other for what may be the longest and most painful onscreen marital silence this side of an Ingmar Bergman film."

From a NYT article about the documentary film "Weiner."

I think this is the reference point:

56 comments:

rhhardin said...: Apparently Huma isn't getting the job done at home.; 5/12/16, 7:49 AM
traditionalguy said...: This is almost as tragic as Caitlyn Jenner wanting to go back.

Who said, "you can't go home again?"; 5/12/16, 7:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Apparently Huma isn't getting the job done at home."

If you're not on the inside of the marriage, you don't know the job definition.; 5/12/16, 7:58 AM
Rae said...: ...and the political rehabilitation of Weiner begins. They must be thinking of running Abedin for a Senate seat in the future.; 5/12/16, 8:00 AM
Nichevo said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 5/12/16, 8:01 AM
Rae said...: Although I think Weiner will compulsively destroy his career again, at some point.; 5/12/16, 8:02 AM
CJinPA said...: The 1970s was the Decade of People in Sweaters Talking about their Unfulfilling Relationships.; 5/12/16, 8:06 AM
Phil 314 said...: I'm not a politician, I'm a work of art.; 5/12/16, 8:13 AM
Nichevo said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 5/12/16, 8:15 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: *really* Only boring predictable leftwing Hollywood navel gazers would give a rat's ass about these two morally bankrupt desperate political climbers.; 5/12/16, 8:20 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Huma is not morally bankrupt, far from it. She is an Esther, a Judith, sacrificing herself to get on the inside for the sake of her people. Just that her people is not our people.; 5/12/16, 8:22 AM
David Begley said...: Why would they agree to make this movie?

Who would watch?; 5/12/16, 8:24 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: You work for the queen of darkness... You're morally bankrupt.; 5/12/16, 8:28 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Why would they agree to make this movie?"

The answer is in the article. They pictured advantages, usable film for their purposes.

"Who would watch?"

The same people who watch films like "The War Room" and "Primary." It's a fine genre of documentaries -- my favorite film genre.

This is the movie I'm most interested in seeing.; 5/12/16, 8:29 AM
rhhardin said...: If you're not on the inside of the marriage, you don't know the job definition.

Marriage is pretty standard. Marriage marriage anyway.; 5/12/16, 8:32 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "I can't believe you would do that to me."

"I've told you I'm sorry. I've begged you for forgiveness. I don't know what else I can do."

(uncomfortable silence)

"It's just that I still can't believe you would do that to me. What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking. I was wrong. Wrong. What can I do, at this point? I know I was wrong."

(uncomfortable silence)

"Was it worth it? Was it really worth it?"

"Of course not. I have told you that before. If I could go back in time I would do things differently, I know that now."

(uncomfortable silence)

"You know that "now"? You didn't know that , then?"

"I don't even know how to answer that. I am Sorry. Sorry sorry sorry sorry."

(uncomfortable silence)

"I don't know what to think anymore."

(uncomfortable silence)

"You're punishing me with these uncomfortable silences, aren't you?"

(uncomfortable silence)

"I don't know what you mean."

"Sure you do. You want your words to hang in the air like an anvil over my head."

"That is NOT what I am doing."

(uncomfortable silence)

"See? You just did it again."

(uncomfortable silence)

"I was simply thinking, that's all. Thinking about things."

"Things? What... things?"

(uncomfortable silence)

(really uncomfortable silence)

"Just... things."

(uncomfortable silence)

"I get it. Why don't you just scream and yell at me, I'd like that better."

"Yell and scream? I'm... numb."

"Numb?"

(uncomfortable silence)

"Numb."

(uncomfortable silence)

"Okay. Hold onto that 'numb' thing. I gotta go take a crap. A long, long crap."

(uncomfortable silence)

"That is all you have to say to me?"

(uncomfortable silence)

"Weel, if you want details I think it might be diarrhea..."

(uncomfortable silence)

I am Laslo.; 5/12/16, 8:32 AM
Quaestor said...: Weeners. They're all weeners.

Especially the girls.; 5/12/16, 8:39 AM
Humperdink said...: "Mr. Weiner is portrayed as eager to focus on substance, but the film omits less savory details about his career, like his lack of accomplishments in Congress, where he had a reputation for rage."

Alan Grayson, call your office.; 5/12/16, 8:41 AM
David Begley said...: Making and watching this movie strikes me as creepy. Exhibitionist and voyeuristic at the same time.

I want both of them to go away.; 5/12/16, 8:44 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Another movie that paints conservatives as evil & the poor democrat as the victim.; 5/12/16, 8:53 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Poor Weener, he was framed.; 5/12/16, 8:56 AM
James Pawlak said...: They deserve each other.; 5/12/16, 9:10 AM
Humperdink said...: Who would want to watch this train wreck, really? No Kardashian movies on the horizon?; 5/12/16, 9:11 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Marriage is pretty standard. Marriage marriage anyway."

No...no one can know what goes in between any married couple in the privacy of their relationship. I personally cannot understand why Huma Abedin stays with Weiner, but it's not for me to understand.; 5/12/16, 9:13 AM
tim maguire said...: This is probably the movie I'm most interested in watching now. The filmmaker was invited in to record Weiner's triumphant return to politics and I'm surprised they let him continue to film as Weiner crashed and burned a second time.

He once told my wife to muzzle our dog.

I will enjoy watching him fail, up close and personal.; 5/12/16, 9:16 AM
Alex said...: I watched "Scenes from a Marriage..." a few years back. The most excruciating 3 hours I'll never get back.; 5/12/16, 9:17 AM
Robert Cook said...: "'Mr. Weiner is portrayed as eager to focus on substance, but the film omits less savory details about his career, like his lack of accomplishments in Congress, where he had a reputation for rage.'

"Alan Grayson, call your office."

Does Grayson have a reputation for rage in private? In his public job performance, when he has interviewed persons before him in Congressional hearings, he has always been preternaturally calm and courteous as he bores in on the evasions, justifications, and dissembling of those before him. I have never seen anyone dissect others so methodically, yet so professionally and cooly, as Grayson.; 5/12/16, 9:17 AM
Martha said...: Or, as Mr. Weiner tells the filmmaker in a closing scene: “I hope that it’s more than just a punch-line kind of thing. I want it just to be viewed as the full person that I was.”

Wrong there Mr. Wiener! You are a punch-line kind of dude......beginning with your name.; 5/12/16, 9:18 AM
Alex said...: Why the puritanism on this? So he sent a picture of his shlong to some 21 yo on Twitter. More sex and less violence, no? Besides men are programmed by nature to seek many moist holes, not just one.; 5/12/16, 9:20 AM
Rick.T. said...: April Apple:

"Poor Weener, he was framed."

Actually, I think the problem was that his weiner was framed.; 5/12/16, 9:26 AM
tim maguire said...: Alex said...Why the puritanism on this?

Can you think of any other reasons why someone might have a problem with this? I get so tired of people who pretend that if there's a sex angle, then it must be all about sex. Or an aversion to it. Do you know anything about Anthony Weiner? Because the people who rejected him over this do. They have a context to put it in.; 5/12/16, 9:35 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The Weener rehabilitation project.
Weener has no skillz other that politician. He must be rehabilitated. He must be forgiven. Because Deeeeee and his wife works for the dark lord.; 5/12/16, 9:35 AM
Nonapod said...: I might be tempted to watch something like this out of morbid curiosity, like rubber necking at a horrible car wreck or bloody crime scene, but I feel slightly disgusted with myself for those feelings. For example, I watched that Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster" years ago. It was brutally honest and cringe inducing, especially because they're people whom I generally like and respect.

But I don't like or respect either Huma or Anthony.

At times it's interesting to put human faces on people who you may view as monsters and/or morally bankrupt. Obviously that's what they're trying to do here, humanize them. Clearly these are nakedly ambitious people who will go to great lengths to achieve their goals, even going as far as exposing themselves during their most private and painful moments.; 5/12/16, 9:40 AM
Humperdink said...: R. Cook said: "Does Grayson have a reputation for rage in private? In his public job performance, when he has interviewed persons before him in Congressional hearings, he has always been preternaturally calm and courteous as he bores in on the evasions, justifications, and dissembling of those before him. I have never seen anyone dissect others so methodically, yet so professionally and cooly, as Grayson."

Then you are living in a cocoon.

Grayson blows at Harry Reid: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/alan-grayson-blows-up-at-harry-reid-during-meeting-say-my-name

"For all of his outbursts, Grayson has been inventive with his slurs. On Wednesday, he bizarrely accused one reporter of being a “s—-ing robot” — a phrase that’s sure to become part of his legacy of incendiary remarks, which include branding a lobbyist a “K Street whore,” likening the tea party to the Ku Klux Klan and accusing a Christian conservative opponent of being a member of the Taliban."

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/alan-grayson-erupts-as-senate-bid-looms-117925#ixzz48S85lhMH

Yep - calm, cool, collected.; 5/12/16, 9:42 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I watched "Scenes From a Marriage" about 40 years ago, and it impressed me very strongly. The TCM channel recently broadcast it, and I recorded it. I had forgotten that the movie is almost three hours long !!

Watching it again, I again was impressed very strongly.

If you ever get an opportunity to watch this movie, do watch it -- especially if you ever have gone through a divorce.; 5/12/16, 10:09 AM
Gusty Winds said...: The first thing I thought about when Hillary's campaign tried labeling Trump "Dangerous Donald" was Weiner's sexual pseudonym "Carlos Danger".

I would imagine that Weiner and Huma are in an arranged power marriage just like the Clintons.; 5/12/16, 10:32 AM
JAORE said...: My failing perhaps. I will NEVER understand those that allow, nay invite, people into their lives to record every moment. No matter how careful, no matter how guarded, there will be a statement, actions, expressions that paint you in a horrible light.

At that point you are at the mercy of the people in the editing room.

Anyone that thinks these are really "documentaries" that tell the entire truth must believe docudramas (based on actual events!). The same material can be edited to make you and angel or a demon.

Of course if you and the production team are birds of a feather the suspense is lessened......; 5/12/16, 10:34 AM
Birkel said...: Job definition:

Access to the levers of power of government.

Outside the marriage and everybody knows.; 5/12/16, 10:39 AM
Known Unknown said...: "This is the movie I'm most interested in seeing."

I'll admit it looks oddly compelling.; 5/12/16, 10:43 AM
Rae said...: Throw in some superhero fights and release it as a political thriller. Carlos Danger is a great alias for that.; 5/12/16, 11:09 AM
Bob Ellison said...: A friend, commenting on how in the hell a handsome and accomplished man we knew could decide to hook up with the bitch he got, said, "well, she must be quite a gymnast."; 5/12/16, 11:13 AM
mikee said...: So, anyone wondering if Hillary's multiply-hacked SecState emails, obtained by everyone who wanted them well before she and her merry band scrubbed 50,000+ "personal" emails from those provided to the State Department for release via FOIA and subpoena, might have something unflattering in their contents about Hillary, Huma, Weiner, or anyone else?

And when, say, a French or Canadian or DC or Alabama newspaper anonymously receives a batch of lurid Hillary/Huma emails in October from an anonymous source, how exactly will Hillary or anyone else defamed by their contents demonstrate that the incendiary emails are NOT real? It isn't possible to say "Here are all my emails, the 10th through 31st email released in that news article aren't mine!"

This is gonna be interesting. And the documentary above might be better explained after reading every one of Hillary's emails instead of projecting our own thoughts on it before we have all the data.; 5/12/16, 11:24 AM
Birches said...: Ugh. I could only get through 5 minutes of that clip. If that's art, count me out.; 5/12/16, 11:51 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Here's what I see, and it could be an overintepretation:

1. Hillary made the classic Devil's bargain with Bill: I will stay with you, even if you cheat on me, because I don't want to wreck your ascent to power, which may lead to my ascent to power. So, Yes, let's silence the "Bimbo Eruptions"

2. Huma did kinda the same thing with Weiner. But, of course, Weiner was a mere piker, compared to Bill, so Huma pivoted away from him (Carlos Danger), and hitched her wagon to Hillary.

3. Both women crave power, and rode their husbands coat-tails on the quest for power. But they feel jilted and angry at their husbands, and want to do to the country what their husbands did to them.

To thwart this nonsense, I say Vote Trump in 2016.; 5/12/16, 12:02 PM
Sebastian said...: @rh: "Apparently Huma isn't getting the job done at home & @RC: "No...no one can know what goes in between any married couple" These statements are not mutually exclusive and raise an interesting epistemological conundrum for the philosophers around here: can we draw a warranted inference from incomplete knowledge? If so, how and under what conditions?; 5/12/16, 12:17 PM
Sebastian said...: More on point: The linked article (and post) imply, to my astonishment, that it is a bad thing to be stared at by Liv Ullmann.; 5/12/16, 12:20 PM
YoungHegelian said...: But, the real question is: Do Anthony & Huma ever talk about wheat in their movie?

(Sorry, obscurantist Bergman reference); 5/12/16, 12:22 PM
Widmerpool said...: "Women may show some discrimination about whom they sleep with, but they'll marry anybody.”

-Anthony Powell; 5/12/16, 12:31 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I made it through a minute and a half of that clip. "These two are awfully mean to each other. ... This must be what people mean when they talk about toxic relationships. ... Oh, get divorced already!"; 5/12/16, 1:04 PM
William said...: Scenes, like Schindler's List, is an example of a fine movie that can only be watchd once.......I think this documentary will be entertaining. Weiner seems like the kind of guy who is only fully alive when he is on camera. On some perverse level, he sought out the scandal and its attendant publicity. Exhibitionists gotta exhibit. The paradox is that when you see Weiner on camera you are looking at the fulfilled Weiner, not the needy Weiner......It's not a tragic story. He seems to have been punished in proportion to his vice. It wasn't such a great vice, and it wasn't such a great punishment.......If Donald Trump makes Huma a campaign issue, I wonder if Hillary will stand by her woman the way Donald stood by his. Campaign manager.; 5/12/16, 1:08 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Judging by the trailer, if The Office were about politics, it would look like "Weiner".; 5/12/16, 3:08 PM
jg said...: gross. skipped forward to end and there was some very unromantic 'domestic violence'; 5/12/16, 3:32 PM
Crimso said...: Abedin reminds me of Will Patton's character in "No Way Out." Dedicated to her boss to the point of creepy obsession.; 5/12/16, 4:09 PM
William said...: A philosophical question for the neo-platonists: Is Weiner most truly being true to his essence when he is engorged and exposed or deflated and concealed or when leaking to a filmmaker. The true essence of Weiner may never be known.; 5/12/16, 4:15 PM
John Henry said...: Huma was raised from about age 2 to 18 in Saudi Arabia but very fundamental Muslim parents. (Indian and Pakistani) Her mother in particular is a very strong believer in Sharia law especially as applied to women.

What do you think the odds of Huma's lady parts not being mutilated or remove is?

My thinking is that Weiner was too stupid to think of this possibility and too stupid to look under the hood, so to speak, before saying "I do". I think he got a Helluva shock on his wedding night. I suspect that Huma is unable to have regular sex.

Having that done to one would be pretty traumatic. Kind of like a guy finding oneself married to a very good looking woman who just happens to have a dick.

It would explain a lot about his behavior post-marriage.

Huma, show us your pussy. America has a right to see.

John Henry; 5/12/16, 7:04 PM
John Henry said...: BTW: We should remember that Huma had a security clearance that let her see everything sec state did. We should also remember that her mother is a professor in a Saudi University in Medina (IIRC)

I can imagine the conversation: "Hey Huma, this is Prince Abdullah. Your mother was caught shoplifting yesterday. Fortunately I was able to make it go away before it became a problem."

"Oh, by the way, do you think you could get us a peek at the US troop deployments in the Mid-East? No biggie and if you can't, don't worry about it."

How in the name of God's green apples did Huma get even the lowest level security clearance with her mother potentially in this situation?

And that retired Dentist in upstate NY could not even get enough clearance to work on Reservist's teeth because his mother lived in Israel.

John Henry; 5/12/16, 7:11 PM