PJ Talks About Beginnings and Endings

mind has been racing around once again just like that proverbial bat flying in the cave. Here are a few of his near-miss crash-into-the-wall thoughts.

Although unrelated to the movies, let’s first talk about the Roger Clemens trial. Roger, as you may know, has been charged with lying to Congress. Now, let’s get this straight: PJ is certainly no fan of The Rocket ever since he aimed a murderous fast ball at Mike Piazza’s head nearly killing him. And then, of course, there was the weird bat-throwing incident that defied all logic and human reason. But PJ is baffled. Since when has Congress applied a prohibition on the telling of untruths? Paraphrasing Mr. Gump: Truthful is as truthful does.

Next we are all familiar with the Ben Franklin adage regarding death and taxes. Ben suggested that these two were perhaps life‘s only permanent certainties. But, PJ is thinking we might want to amend the adage and add a third: Tattoos. They are, after all, pretty permanent.

However, a doctor recently came to the theater and asked about advertising on the screen. It seems he has pretty much stopped practicing “regular” medicine and is now almost one hundred per cent involved in the removal of tattoos. If this takes off, and it works, then we will remove this third item and go back to Ben’s original two.

PJ just saw the movie Beginners. It was a wonderful, artful movie which, and this kind of sounds like an oxymoron, is a celebration of sadness.

PJ once read that Edgar Allen Poe said that melancholia was the sweetest of all emotions. There actually is a genre of movies out there, perhaps never quite defined, that fits this “sweetly sorrowful“ category. Some titles would be: 500 Days of Summer, Juno, Life is Beautiful, and Almost Famous. They are all sad, but in a lovely way. And often tinged with humor.

Beginners is a perfect fit as well. The name “Beginners” is interesting. It just might have been called “Enders”, because every beginning is preceded by an ending. When something ends, something new begins. The movie-maker, however, is a cup-is-half-full kind of guy. Had he been the half-empty kind, he might have called this sweetly sorrowful movie the more negative title, “Enders.”

The opening sequences of the movie wherein boy meets girl are sublime. And the girl? She makes it all happen. Who is she? Melanie Laurent. Who is that, you ask? She is the girl who escaped into the forest, the girl who ran the movie theater in Paris, the girl in the red dress. Does this ring a bell? Correct! Shoshana in Inglourious Basterds. A popular French actress, we may be seeing more of Ms. Laurent in the future.

Enough for now.