adelaidemedblog

The name of the piece is: Scherzo a la Russe, by Tchaikovsky.

I am practicing hard. 

I watched Children of Men, the 2006 movie starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine et al.  I wonder if anyone likes it as much as I do?  Because I really thought it was something else.  I wish I could have seen it in the cinema.  It made me really think about what would happen if our world became like that.  And then it made me think about how much the world is like today.  It’s all there, under the surface.  Of course, I had the benefit of the bonus features, spelling out the philosophical themes and psychosocial issues that the movie portrays.  I thought of these things before I watched those things, honest!  But for sure, those things concreted my beliefs, supported the feeling that I felt after finishing the movie.  And that terrible ending song.  I’m sure it will grow on me in time. 

This is probably one of the few movies that I can say I liked not because of the music, at all.  I don’t even remember the soundtrack.  Of all the movies which I would list in my favourites, I would say almost every one of them had great or memorable music which made me feel a certain way, or bop to a certain beat.  American Beauty, Lost In Translation, Blade Runner.  The second one had a killer soundtrack, come to think of it, that I’ve kept on my playlist at any one time or another.  Probably one big reason I liked Lost In Translation, actually, is because of the ending, accompanied perfectly by Just Like Honey.  This song had me at the cut to the city buildings view along the freeway and fade out to the credits with “Just like honey…………”.

Point is, Children of Men is not a musical film.  That is not to say other films I’ve liked were musicals, although Moulin Rouge was great fun.  I mean that the film doesn’t focus on its music.  It doesn’t appear to have a theme, although I’m basing that on my a-recollection of it, as normally I would be humming it, if it did have music.  I think part of the reason for this is that it is shot in a documentary style.  Contrast this with Blood Diamond.  I didn’t like it.  The characters were good, the spectacle was good, the story was meaningful, and the cause was just, within and without the film.  It was, for me, a really boring movie!  The soundtrack was suitable epic, although I would have appreciated it more if I had not skipped through the key scenes.  Leo’s Afrikaan English accent was absolutely stunning though.  I love that accent.

The crux of Children of Men lies in its treatment of the ‘infertile’ state of the world in 2027.  Infertile is a word used in two ways, here.  One is literally, infertile, in that all women cannot become pregnant, since 2009.  In the other way, infertile describes the way in which people carry themselves, the way in which life goes on, the feeling of despair.  If there was no future, what is the point of keeping up the present?  The rest of the world having collapsed, what hope is there?  I simply though the idea of the film kept it afloat, and the entire movie revolves around the feeling, which by the end of the movie has permeated into the minds of the audience, that the human condition is a controlled animal, completely and utterly depending on the circumstances, and unstable at all times.

The reversal of gender roles.  No longer is a boy the prized child.  A male of the family, one who will carry on the bloodline, the namesake, is no longer what matters.  In lieu of spoilers, the climax of the movie is so beautiful because it strikes such a powerful chord; the audience member realises that just as we are all witness to this scene, so the world of the movie has changed after it, so our world should have changed, too, from infertility, to fertility.  Infertility, as above, that means the loss of culture, loss of heritage, the widespread fear, war, and poverty.  Fertility - that which will change all these formidable things.

It was so cool how the movie laid out its themes.  The walk between silent armies, who had been fighting a second before, and then, a minute after.  And then, the boat, the metaphor which that philosopher on the bonus disc liked so much, meaning a loss of roots, floating on the water, and a new beginning.  Tomorrow.

What an awesome movie.