Liberation

L. has been moopolizing the computer all day and watching that dance film abut Cuba which came out a few years ago. Spent the whole day back and forth on it. I think she finds it disturbing to know that people are having a hard time at this very moment but there is little anyone can do to help. Same old, same old, and C. Rice repeating that the U.S. is not about to make things easier on Cuba. How did Guantanamo prison end up on that island in the first place. Although if anyone ever seriously objected to the U.S. keeping prisonners, it is a gesture that the prison is not on home ground. ( And how did the planetary beacon of democracy end up calling itself a homeland, anyway?) For the joke: Guantanamo prison is hurricane proof, the safest spot on the island, at the moment.

I am seriously considering skipping the entire election campaign in the U.S. Hillary gave up the Florida votes that would have given her the victory, just politely let the vote go. Whatever possessed her to do that. I wasn't necessarily rooting for her like a religion, but there was remarkable perseverance and commitment in what she was doing. I'm feeling bummed out. Speaking of which. There is a reason why the public needn't know about the love lives of politicians and the Clintons illustrated it. In the sex department - and this is my personal opinion - that man is a dork. Baaaad sex. Awful. Take me to the movies, let me dream...

So while L. kept on the computer, I ended up watching artv, with the cat. In French, a black and white documentary on cinema and psychoanalysis in which major 20th century filmmakers appeared. Fritz Lang, with his monocle, who liked to make movies about innocent-looking people who ended up being criminals (which is the role of dreams, in a Freudian perspective). Indeed, the film itself pointed out how the whole of cinematic vocabulary, the cutting and story-telling is close to dreams, where one fades in from darkness.

Bergman liked to make films about horrible experiences: he said it made him joyful. Hitchcock used the French word 'cauchemar' to describe his work and Fellini joked he often caught glimpses of his work on tv and wondered who was making all these horrible films. Goddard really nailed it: he remarked that the cinema allowed the viewer to see what he ordinarily didn't, that this was the fascination of cinema.

So while I'm at it, I will also skip the entire Canadian election. To do math, or something creative and joyful. Ah liberation!