Hitchcock's Rear Window

Jeff’s broken bones leave him stranded in his apartment, perched at his rear window leading a voyeuristic existence with nothing but his binoculars and his own imagination, while those who visit him are tugged into his discoveries that eventually become obsessions. Jeffries observes all of his neighbors change, and while he watches so to does his own life take on a transformation. The narrative of those living at Jeff’s rear window matters just as much to the plot as what goes on inside his own apartment. The people through whom Jeff vicariously lives act as stopwatches or time tables of sorts- We’re given a sense of how the film is developing, of how much time is passing, of how Jeff’s own relationship is shifting. The goings on of Jeff’s neighbors represent the amalgam of where Jeff and Lisa can go and how they can turn out, and while Jeff is confined to his apartment, we sometimes get a sense of what the two of them could be doing, a more exciting life they could be living.

Miss Lonelyhearts’ enactment of romantic evenings over wine and dinner can represent an extreme of how Lisa might feel about the fact that Jeff doesn’t often reciprocate warm feelings and affection. Miss Lonelyheart is hopeless and alone, and her own imagination comforts her as she fantasizes about having some company. Likewise, Lisa probably feels hopeless that Jeff is not as loving and sometimes seems oblivious to her messages. On a lonely night after a disappointing visit to Jeff’s, Lisa may possibly just as well succumb to her own imagination and role play a little at what a romantic evening she wants to have or should be sharing with Jeffries. One can't sense, however, that Lisa’s frustration could reach the point of suicide as does Miss Lonelyheart’s.

Across from Jeff’s window lives Miss Torso, the dancer who lacks a proper leotard. She is quite social, but her activities usually involve only the company of men. Lisa too seems socially active. Someone with her sensibility and style would almost have to be. But again, these two women might share a certain lacking emotionally in that, though they surround themselves at parties or get-togethers, there doesn’t seem to be stability. Lisa especially is searching and prying at Jeff to realize what she’s after or to see what they have together. After an especially frustrating visit, Lisa hints at not returning for a while. Jeff asks when he’ll see her again, and she caves. Maybe tomorrow, she admits. There is resolve in the end in that Jeff and Lisa finally find romantic commonality, and so does Miss Torso, rather humorously.

The life of the newlywed man might represent what Jeffries, along with most men, both desire and fear. The shades are drawn for nearly the film’s entirety, and when the man finally peers his head out the window, his wife nags him and the completely spent look on his face is priceless. Jeff is reluctant to be tied down, but does at last see past this momentary frustration and downside of being a couple. He becomes more responsive to Lisa, but then again a man with two broken legs can’t really go anywhere.

Always Be Closing

Mamet, on accusations of being a misogynist, in 1997: "It's inaccurate and it's a lie, and not only is it that, but it's cowardly. [N]othing could be further from the truth, either in my personal life, if it's anyone's business, or in my work. I think if someone wants to make such an unpleasant and demonstrably false assertion, let him or her make it, and I'll respond with whatever small courtesy it deserves" (The Boston Globe, 1997).

I do feel that Mamet’s choice in an all male cast drives home the message that women, despite being trashed behind their backs and downplayed by an all male cast, rather harshly, are, in fact, to be admired strangely enough.
In my eyes, the women mentioned in Mamet’s play are depicted as both rational (Mrs. Lingke gets her husband to detract from a bs purchase) and also human and vulnerable (Levene’s daughter is in the hospital). In their absence, Mamet’s women earn their rank in being a man’s better half. Mamet also chooses to deliberately exclude women from his play to help fill out its macho, chest-pounding and highly competitive atmosphere. Would an all female real estate office breed this “eat or be eaten” aggression? It might. I doubt a woman’s motive differs from a man’s when earning a pretty penny is at stake. I will, however, hypothesize that four women might be more cunning and less obvious. I’m sure the one-up-manship would involve a lot more tact, something other than bragging about a sale or calling a rival the C word. Either C word. Perhaps if a woman were in the sales office, my notion of her sort of upstanding image might fly out the window. In the spring of 2009, director Gary Krinke of STAGEStheatre took this approach straight to the stage in casting women for the four main roles:

http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-05-21/culture/glengarry-glen-ross-stagestheatre/

Having casted a female, Mamet could have done a number of things. Perhaps Levene might have had a scene displaying his emotional, fatherly side at a hospital visit. Perhaps Lingke’s wife might have shown up in the office with James, and we would really get to see Roma’s chops (and manipulation) as a salesman. But in keeping the women of the play in the background, Mamet keeps their integrity intact. But I would really like to have seen Alec Baldwin’s speech be delivered by someone like Judge Judy, but I’m not sure how the brass balls thing would hold any water in that scenario.

Persepolis

I can certainly appreciate this format, a graphic novel, for taking a weighty subject and delivering it in an almost entertaining way, with all due respect. The issues, characters and events were just as provocative as if Satrapi had written a traditional, text-driven memoire. I previously had no education on the history of Iran or its people. This was a good start.

Marxism, Dialectic Materialism. Frames like pg. 12 bottom left and pg. 23 bottom right

I must blushingly admit I know so little of the Islamic Revolution and past invasions of Iran. Unbeknownst to me, Iran had/still has a deep struggle with class, and its citizens once sought communism and Marxism as a remedy. This certainly has helped shape some thoughts about the Iranian people historically and culturally. I would never guess the radicalism of Marx could permeate into a country that has seemingly always been so tightly ruled. Same goes for Michael Jackson and Iron Maiden.

The Wine. pgs. 106-110

This section portrays what I imagine social life would be like under such a repressive regime- a clandestine party interrupted by sirens and a family being stopped and almost arrested on the way home. A parallel might be drawn to our own prohibition era in the States, much like Marjane’s uncle having his own basement winery and having to flush his booze down the toilet in order not to be arrested.

Likewise, Marjane's parents must smuggle posters home, and even little Marjane herself must buy her favorite music from strangers in dark alleys . Pop culture and music can serve as a helping hand in sparking an outcry. When I think of revolution and changing/helping the world, I think of Public Enemy and the "We Are the World" for Haiti just as often as I do Malcolm X, Jesus Christ or the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

The Moviegoer

“The ethical is that by which he becomes what he becomes.” - Kierkegaard, Either/Or

I’m torn now between whether or not Binx can focus and move forward, toward the ethical from the esthetic, and live with and be there for Kate. He is now starting medical school, however to draw a parallel to Binx’s father, he too, according to Binx’s mother was in the wrong medical field. And perhaps Binx will find himself going down the wrong path after all.

“You mean he wasn’t cut out to be an ordinary doctor, he really should have been in research.” “That’s right!”

As for their marriage, I hope Binx can settle into being Kate’s husband and learn what it means to cope with what will only become a different sort of malaise, one in which two people share and work through together. I think he’ll understand malaise better, and learn to live with it.

Binx himself needs a kick in the ass. He’s now lost Uncle Jules and Lonnie, and he hopefully will wake up and realize how fragile life is. And how fragile Kate is. She needs him, and to an extent and whether or not he knows it, he needs her.

Kierkegaard describes despair to be the sickness unto death. Inescapable, much like Binx’s malaise. But the married life will not deliver him from his malaise.

“Even that which, humanly speaking, is utterly beautiful and lovable- the womanly youthfulness that is perfect peace and harmony and joy- is nevertheless despair.” Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

But to preface the quote above, Kierkegaard himself wrote from a chair of loneliness. He broke off what could have been a meaningful and life-long relationship with someone he admired, and for little understandable reason. A young lady, Regina Olsen. Much like Binx, Kierkegaard felt far too much melancholy to step into marriage. But therein is the difference- Thankfully, Binx has taken a giant leap in taking Kate’s hand in marriage. He’s facing his own loneliness. Kierkegaard’s choice in breaking off his engagement is very illusory, and Regina served him primarily but sadly as a muse for his many philosophical inquiries into loneliness, love, etc.

Despair, according to Kierkegaard, is not rare. It’s commonplace. It’s universal. We all go through it. We cope with it. Life is planned activities. Just add meaning. The final dialogue between Kate and Binx remind me of the simple niceties of a relationship. She wonders if he’ll be thinking of her sitting in the streetcar. He wonders if she’ll carry out the favor.

Twenty feet away and she turns around. “Mr. Klostermann?” “Mr. Klostermann.”

Kate’s quaint, fumbling insecurity about whom she is to ask for makes me think a search has ended.

The first sentence in the Epilogue refers to Dylan Thomas’ “A Poem in October.” Check him out. http://www.bigeye.com/october.htm