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So, my bf took me to see Little Ashes tonight. He said he wanted to see it because it's about Dali (we were both art students, once upon a time, long before meeting each other). [ I didn't know a THING about it, or even who was in it, which just goes to show how out of touch with pop culture I am lately. ]
But really, it turns out my bf just wanted to get lucky with me. Heh -- he learned so much from Brokeback Mountain. He no longer squirms through gay love scenes, either. (A) I got him used to it, and (B) he knows he'll be rewarded later. Good boy!
Little Ashes is actually a sweepingly romantic film in many respects, and the central romance is quite lyrically and beautifully filmed, at least initially. The actors are all very good, and their performances manage to capture youthful idealism and rebellion against the status quo and (later) fascism, the phases of the creative process for painters and writers (and how living and loving catalyze the creative process), the sweetness and poignancy of first and forbidden love, and the dysfunction of triangulated love. It manages to do this without being sickly sweet and sentimental, and also without being pessimistic and depressing the way Brokeback Mountain ends. The build up of the romance, the one-step-forward-two-steps-back aspects of its development, with its longings and desires -- yet recriminations and fears -- are also spot-on.
( a review and explanation of Little Ashes , with spoilers, is included to illustrate why it's like Joe/Billy, and why one scene in particular could be easily re-written as Joe/Billy )
But really, it turns out my bf just wanted to get lucky with me. Heh -- he learned so much from Brokeback Mountain. He no longer squirms through gay love scenes, either. (A) I got him used to it, and (B) he knows he'll be rewarded later. Good boy!
Little Ashes is actually a sweepingly romantic film in many respects, and the central romance is quite lyrically and beautifully filmed, at least initially. The actors are all very good, and their performances manage to capture youthful idealism and rebellion against the status quo and (later) fascism, the phases of the creative process for painters and writers (and how living and loving catalyze the creative process), the sweetness and poignancy of first and forbidden love, and the dysfunction of triangulated love. It manages to do this without being sickly sweet and sentimental, and also without being pessimistic and depressing the way Brokeback Mountain ends. The build up of the romance, the one-step-forward-two-steps-back aspects of its development, with its longings and desires -- yet recriminations and fears -- are also spot-on.
( a review and explanation of Little Ashes , with spoilers, is included to illustrate why it's like Joe/Billy, and why one scene in particular could be easily re-written as Joe/Billy )