It has been entirely too long since I have written anything. I will now attempt to remedy that.

After Comedy Sportz last night, I ran into Leah and Steve. They invited me to watch Children of Heaven with them at a friend’s house. It’s Iranian, so I couldn’t resist—even though I really wanted to get some grading done for my class today. I don’t regret it, though my students might.

Before the movie began I got to hold a python. Every time I see a python or anaconda I am reminded of first grade when I did a report on, and wrote a story about, pythons. I feel a strange sort of affinity for them that I can’t explain. I have never met a snake that I liked better than a python, and all because of some long forgotten (at least by everyone else) report. If Barry Hoonan ever reads this, I would like to say thank you. My love of lobsters comes from Mrs. Large’s second grade class, and my cockroach interest from third grade with Mrs. O’Malley. Thank you all. It’s likely that no one (especially me) will ever know just how much you influenced me. And thus we see the power of student directed projects. They have been by far the most memorable portions of my schooling. Hence I will make my students suffer through them.

Cinco, the python, is preparing to molt, and therefore can’t see very well. For that reason we were advised to not play with her head. She also has a respiratory infection brought about by the wrong kind of heater in her cage. Her new owner, whose name I have forgotten, is trying to cure her of it. In the interim, however, she occasionally opens her mouth to breath and makes a hissing sound. The first time we saw her do it, it frightened Leah who was holding her at the time. On the other hand, Cinco seemed to take to me. She wrapped around me and seemed very content to just sit there. She was probably just lethargic, but I prefer to think that she liked me. It was pleasant except that she was wrapped completely around me and I got the distinct impression that she could crush me with very little effort.

The movie was good. The characters reminded me of people that I might have met in Guatemala, except of course that they didn’t speak Spanish. It seems to me that many third world countries are very similar. Everywhere that I have been in Europe is rather similar to the United States, even though they are also very different. Third world countries have the same sort of different sameness that the US and Europe has. This is all based on my oh-so extensive world traveling experience.

The story is about a young boy who lost his sister’s shoes. To avoid a beating, he and his sister don’t tell their parents, and both wear his sneakers to school. When she gets home they trade and he goes to school (they have school at different times). This of course causes problems because they both have to run or he will be late to school. He does everything he can to compensate his sister for losing her shoes. Among other things he enters a race because 3rd prize is a pair of sneakers. I don’t really want to tell you more than that since it would ruin the story. Suffice it to say that it was very well done, especially the ending—very non-Hollywood. Few things are worse than a Hollywood ending.

I have never watched a foreign film that I didn’t like. Part of that is undoubtedly because I haven’t seen many. Also, if they are popular enough to be seen in the US, they are probably the best. Nevertheless, I will extrapolate from the few foreign movies that I have seen, to arrive at broad and sweeping conclusions about all foreign films. Just consider this a lesson in the dangers of extrapolation.

One thing that I really enjoy about foreign cinema, is that there is often no “bad guy”—the characters have to battle circumstances, not people. That’s what life is about. When was the last time you battled an evil genius? When was the last time you battled unfair circumstances? What can I say more?

After I had watched Whale Rider, Viper mentioned that it seemed to meander. I think that is also true of Children of Heaven, and perhaps of foreign cinema in general. It was certainly true of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. I find that I enjoy the “meandering”. Hollywood reduces things to the bare essentials, and forgets that the characters are real people with real stories. The plot elements and allowable characterization are carefully selected to minimize boredom, thereby maximizing profitability. If a scene doesn’t move the plot along, or do essential characterization, it gets cut. Getting to know the characters in a piece of Hollywood-style cinema is a lot like cramming for a test—one learns enough to pass the test (understand the rest of the movie), but rarely does one remember anything useful afterwards. In foreign movies one comes to know the characters, much as one comes to know one’s own family—by living with them for a long time. You don’t have to be told that someone is in love by seeing them confess it in a major scene. You come to know it by picking up all the subtle hints that the writer and actors give you. Getting to know characters in Hollywood is like a church social, you cram as many names and majors into your brain as possible, so that the next time you meet them, you look like you care. Perhaps that explains why I don’t much care for church opening socials.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Hollywood tries to tell bigger stories than it can. Many good movies come from short stories. Do you realize what that means? Two hours of movie from maybe 20 written pages. How are you supposed to do justice to a novel? Or an epic trilogy like Lord of the Rings!? Don’t get me wrong, I think Peter Jackson did an excellent job, but it will never be as good as the books. Part of it is simply the limitation of the medium. Now, Before you fire off a heated reply, I do know that LotR is technically foreign, but it seems rather Hollywood-esque in many ways. For that reason I consider it from Hollywood (even though it would probably have been much worse had it really been made in Hollywood). The story of Children of Heaven could probably be told well in about 20 printed pages. The plot is very simple, but by the end of the show I feel like I really know Ali. I truly care for him and his sister. I wish that I could send his sister a pair of shoes. I wished that I could just make things better. The writer and director, however, resisted the easy way out. They told the story that was the inevitable result of the characters and their choices. Because of that, I feel that my life has been enriched. I have learned more about the human condition.

Up with slow meandering movies!