If you missed Signs and Wonders last night, shame on you [as if I have right to dole out shame after missing last week..]. Anyway, last night's movie, Midnight in Paris, was truly a wonderful and artistic movie.
The premise is, a screen-writer and aspiring novelist, Gil Pender, is in Paris with his fiancee, Inez and her parents. It's clear right off that Gil's creativity is annoying and looked down upon by his fiancee and her parents. While Gil sees Paris as a magical world, his fiancee can't wait to get back to America.
"I don't get here often enough, that's the problem. Can you picture how drop dead gorgeous this city is in the rain? Imagine this town in the '20s. Paris in the '20s, in the rain. The artists and writers!" -Gil
"You're in love with a fantasy."-Inez
But then, Inez meets an old crush, Paul and his girlfriend, and suddenly Paris is enlightening to her. She's swooped off her feet by Paul the know-it-all and begins to see Gil even more negatively than before. Only Gil doesn't see anything going on with his crumbling engagement through his mask of jealousy for Paul's intelligence; Gil does see, however, that something is wrong, and he knows he's miserable.
By mishap, Gil winds up at a street corner where he is picked up by a strange, vintage vehicle that drives him right into 1920's Paris. Here, Gil meets famous writers (Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald), artists (like Picasso, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, etc) but more importantly makes friends and actually feels at home.
That's all I got for summation for now. I'm going to move on to some things that really struck me in this movie. The most important lesson for me to learn from this movie is how to fully appreciate the present. I've been experiencing my share of longing to just go back in time, or go forward in time, or just not be here, which is what Gil faces--however reluctant he is to see it. Nostalgia and longing to be in the past is Gil's form of escapism.
"Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... "-Paul, Inez's crush.
Gil's novel in the works is about a man who runs a nostalgia shop, which is what prompted this line. But, in hearing this I was jetted into what we've been talking about in class with fairy tales and talking about escapism. I think it's interesting for find out about the many ways of escapism that we humans create for ourselves. Not only do we set up amazing, fantastical worlds to run to, and we use the past to hide from the present too. And there's so many more ways to escape than just those two forms.
And why do we want so badly to escape? I feel like Gil sums it up.
"That's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying." -Gil
As Christians, we know life is unsatisfying and why it's unsatisfying, but was also know it doesn't have to be that way. I think the truth to this movie is that Gil is looking for something, to fill the "God shaped vacuum in the human heart" (Pascal quoted in A Family of Faith). And while at the end Gil comes to terms with the present and satisfaction with his life [meaning he dumps his fiancee, thank goodness, oh and decides to stay in Paris], he did so not by Godly means but through faith means: faith in himself. Having faith in yourself is great, but having faith in yourself alone is bad, but that's another blog post entirely so I'll steer clear of that for now.
So in a way Gil found a way to satisfy that God shaped vacuum. And we'll leave it there.
Another line that stuck me was one that the character Ernest Hemingway said, and one I absolutely love.
"I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing." -Ernest Hemingway
So this goes back to Tuesday's class when we were talking about something not being lovable until it is loved. Not only that, but when that love is true, there is no fear anymore. Hemingway was talking about the complete absence of the fear of death and feeling supernatural upon finding real love [specifically kissing the right woman, but I'm broadening perspectives here and I can't share that experience so]. And, [I'm sure you can tell where I'm going with this] that corresponds back to Christianity and how, our love for God and our relationship with Him makes us unafraid of death.
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