Yesterday and today

Last night I watched the Spanish movie "Talk to her" by Mr. Almodovar. He also made the movie "All about my mother" I believe. By now, I have a rough idea of his style of filmmaking. He is very much a man who appreciates the sensuality of women, particularly lush, full-bodied females. However, he has also casted females with a more angular cut.

In the film last night, there was a small section where a film within a film played, and within that film, what seemed to me to be the typical heterosexual male's ultimate fantasy was played out. A very small man, no bigger than one's hand perhaps, was in bed with his girlfriend, a regular sized female. She soon fell asleep and the little man, using all his might, managed to pull off her nightgown and expose her sleeping form, in the nude. Then because he was the size of thumbelina, he frolicked over her naked body, literally enjoying the curves of her body as landscape. Hills, valleys, you can imagine his fun. I would venture to say that, this director has managed to very eloquently symbolize what man (or maybe humans in general) ultimately may be seeking for, in the purest, freudian sense. Furthermore, without venturing too deep into human psychological mumbo jumbo, the film very precisely portrayed female sensuality and sexuality. One scene in the film reminded me of the Bernini sculpture where Hades captured the poor Persephone and dragged her screaming and kicking into his underworld kingdom. His five fingers, hard and brutal, contrasts nicely with the soft, inviting flesh of her inner thigh. It was this particular part that came to my mind during the film. Although I enjoyed the poetic treatment that Almodovar gives to human sexuality, I was not too impressed with the actual plot or storyline. However, perhaps this film bears repeated watching because it's not a plot-driven movie by any means.

Today, this morning, I got up and the first thing I did to perk myself up was to turn on the TV and watch some Chinese programming. My parents got these Chinese satellite programs, so that I can watch Chinese news and programs anytime I want. I watched a show depicting the cultural life and arts within China and around the world. A few posts earlier I said that images have a very strong effect on me, perhaps more so than music. But imagine the combinatory effects of images and motion and music all together. How my neurons danced this morning, my droogies! The show was only 30 minutes long and showed 15-30 second snippets of life around the globe. One minute I'm watching a fashion show in Beijing, the designer used red silk as his motif to create elaborate works of art and these beautiful woman strutted down the runway dressed in pure red glory. Lovely to behold. Then the program took me to New York City where a can sculpture competition was held and I was completely blown away at the creativity of these people, who managed to create, solely out of commercial canned foods, enormous and geometrically stunning configurations. I saw dragons, apples, faucets, a wedding couple. This did jingle my artistic sensibilities somewhat and made me long to try it myself. Another thing I saw was an auction where Andy Warhol's pictures of Mao and Marilyn Monroe sold for ridiculous amounts of money. This brings to mind a radio programming I listened to today that said that the top 20% richest people of the world collectively owns 90X more wealth than the poorest 20% of the world. Isn't that mind-boggling? And with that thought, I shall sign off now and began my work day.