Before Sunset

Jesse calls Celine, “An angry, manic depressive activist,” and Celine refers to Jesse as, “Just another married man.” They are really different people now. Their lives have taken turns that they never anticipated. Jesse is so stuck in the past he makes his living off of a book he writes of their affair together, and Celine tries to find love in other men and fails in all her relationships. They are far from the idealistic teenagers/young adults they used to be. Out in the real world, what they thought would be the “perfect life” of a career, spouse, and kids is unattainable in reality. After their brief encounter they never felt love the same way again, even Jesse says he does not love his wife, just his son. The sequel shows that love does fade over time. The two are very distant and awkward with each other, in a way they weren’t the last time they were together. Celine even debates whether to put her hand on Jesse’s shoulder to comfort him. The whole time they are together all they do is hug, and not even a lover’s embrace from The Notebook, but a tentative hug that is restrained. Their story demonstrates through character development that there is not always a happy ending. They both seem to have miserable lives, but they are just dealing with it, not even with a therapist but by themselves. This movie is not what most people expected. Like he said, if you thought they would meet up again that means you are a romantic, but if you do not then you are a cynic. Since they never do meet up until by chance ten years later, it means that the people who are romantics are naive and foolish, just like Jesse is portrayed in the movie. Celine who is disillusioned by love is also sad, but somehow her live seems better than Jesse, who can at least take solace in her cat.

Steve Almond

Skull was a captivating story about alternate love and desire, which I think is what this course is really about. We aren't interested in the fairy tale endings as much as were are in love gone wrong. Almond wasn't talking about love gone wrong, but love gone, well, weird. The eye was symbolic of everything in us that is flawed and unlovable, and her boyfriend's acceptance of this feature through intimate contact reveals his view of love as a process of understanding the significant others' flaws.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about his lecture was his talk of writing about sex. He said that sex isn't just a physical act, but it reveals the psychology and emotions of the person who is having it. This doesn't have to be applied to just writing sex, but reading about it as well. I thought of a series of books I liked written by M. C. Beaton and how when the protagonist has sex it shows something about their current psychological and emotional state. At one point she is ditched by her ex husband while that are on vacation together after she is accused of murder and her old friend Charles comes to visit her. They spend the day together and then split a hotel room, they've been drinking and he climbs into her bed. He kisses her and after all that time of being rejected by her ex she finally feels the love of another person and she likes it. Charles goes after her to piss off her ex husband who calls in the morning to see if she's ok, and Agatha does it because of her low self esteem. From this experience she learns a lot about herself, not to get suckered into a night in bed just cause you need to feel loved because you'll just feel worse in the morning and that she deserves better than her ex. I would've never thought about this story in that why had Almond not pointed out to us the psychology behind sex not the act. He said if the act is all you're concerned about then basically you're just writing porn. Sometimes I just thought sex was included in a plot to spice up the story, but now I realize in many cases it is used to reveal something about the two characters engaging in the act.

Sexuality and the Police State in Ferid Boughedir’s Halfaouine

When I first watched the movie Halfouine, I did not pick up on the theme of homosexuality versus heterosexuality, so Prof. Lang's presentation really helped me understand different analytical viewpoints. Last semester I took an Intro to film class which did help me understand a lot of the film elements of the movie. I did pick up on two aspects of the movie before the talk: a boy's (Noura) awaking to sexual maturity and the problems with censorship in the country that block this sexual awakening. For example, when the boys tried to flirt with the women, a normal part of growing up, Noura's father beat him on the feet, altering his view of sexuality. Also, when Noura wanted to stay close with his mother, his father would tell him he needs to leave the "women's sphere," which Noura is reluctant to do. Most successful movie, about awakening desire, offers amusement, comedy plays on his youth and inexperience, move between the public and private sphere of men and women, seen through the eyes of a child in an adult

I found Prof. Lang's idea of the psychoanalytical theme of sexuality, when there is a rupture from mother, and how water is associated with mother and maternal sphere, very informative, because I did not pick up on this while watching the movie, but retrospectively I see it now. His desire for the women is lodged under nostalgia, like how they, the people of Tunisia long for the country to be a free state.

 The film shows us at the end a boy freed from the oppression of his father. The film’s central allegory—the father’s heavy handed authoritarianism, embodies the presidents, the steady erosion and loss in privacy and freedom, Noura represents the society, the final shots are pessimistic. He is never integrated into the men’s world. Seliah his role model was been unjustly imprisoned. 

I think it's kind of backwards that homosexuality is connected with the corrupt government in a patriarchal society where people are unhappy. I don't think that is something you see in most American movies. If there was, there would be a lot of negative reviews and controversy. In America, I think we try to celebrate equal love rights for everyone, and wouldn't use homosexuality as an allegory for corrupt government.