2008-06-22

Little rains accompanied Mick and me this morning as we arose and followed us all day. We did our cleanliness is next to godliness routine, he cleaning house and I singing the service at St. Luke’s. Then we settled down to our first of three films with lunch.

Silk, with Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley, was a sumptuously produced romance of glacial slowness and an impeccable, utterly aesthetically realized cinematography. Every shot was beautiful and many were breathtaking. However, its pace brought Mick and me quickly to the point of sleep, so we paused the movie and napped for an hour. We then viewed the rest of the film with great enjoyment. This may be number one on things you can’t do at the theater.

It was an essentially slight movie, focused on the vagaries of a man’s desire and the heartbreak of the women who love him. Why women would love such a silly fellow is a question not raised by the film. Yet it cohered to its own ethic of beauty. The music was piercingly sweet throughout, a gentle and lovely accompaniment to the piece.

The Savages, with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, looked at how brother and sister Savage deal with their father’s descent into dementia and then death. The ensemble between brother and sister was just excellent; that of the father and his children flat and unrealized, in part due to a meager script and in part due to the emoting of the actor playing Dad. While I disliked the film in general, I liked its ending. And certainly it is a piece dealing with events and processes with which many of us must deal at some point.

After a break, we sat down to dinner and watched our final film, The Other Boleyn Girl. This film was a treat to watch. It was well-shaped, beautifully acted by a powerful ensemble of players and featured incredibly elaborate and accurate costumes for that peacock period in the history of clothes. If you like historical films rich in political maneuvering, you’ll love this film.

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.