"Million Dollar Baby" + what films do to me
Saw a very good film this evening, the multi-Oscar winning “Million Dollar Baby”. Much as I quite liked “The Aviator”, this film is in a different league.
I am someone for whom films (and music for that matter) have the power to open my mind and heart and bring out my own creativity. It’s not just that I can get emotional. It goes deeper than that and lasts long after the eyes have dried. It’s as if for a while afterwards I see the world (myself, others, nature, objects...) with a new clarity; as if, like Neo in The Matrix, I get a glimpse of the “code” underlying all things. Ideas fly around my head. I get the urge to write a song or just write down my thoughts (as I am doing now!! :-). The more a film or a piece of music encourages me to give myself over to it, to become totally absorbed in it, the more likely it is to induce this state. So films whose themes and/or characters I somehow relate to do this more easily. With music it could be the combined effects of lyrics and music in a song or more likely a whole album or concert (pop or classical).
The treatment of the father/daughter (child) theme in tonight’s film certainly had an affect on me, but it was the final third of the film which held the most power. It brought vividly to mind an experience I had 4 years ago surrounding the death of a retired Brother from my community who had been one of my teachers at secondary school in Southampton. I will save the telling of that story till my next blog (tomorrow hopefully).
I am someone for whom films (and music for that matter) have the power to open my mind and heart and bring out my own creativity. It’s not just that I can get emotional. It goes deeper than that and lasts long after the eyes have dried. It’s as if for a while afterwards I see the world (myself, others, nature, objects...) with a new clarity; as if, like Neo in The Matrix, I get a glimpse of the “code” underlying all things. Ideas fly around my head. I get the urge to write a song or just write down my thoughts (as I am doing now!! :-). The more a film or a piece of music encourages me to give myself over to it, to become totally absorbed in it, the more likely it is to induce this state. So films whose themes and/or characters I somehow relate to do this more easily. With music it could be the combined effects of lyrics and music in a song or more likely a whole album or concert (pop or classical).
The treatment of the father/daughter (child) theme in tonight’s film certainly had an affect on me, but it was the final third of the film which held the most power. It brought vividly to mind an experience I had 4 years ago surrounding the death of a retired Brother from my community who had been one of my teachers at secondary school in Southampton. I will save the telling of that story till my next blog (tomorrow hopefully).
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