Monday, May 22, 2006

Gone wid da Wind


I have never watched Gone with the Wind before. Not this lifetime anyway. So I thought it was about time. Especially since I heard something indicating it was not the trivial romance I thought it was.

So, watching the scene just before the intermission, where Scarlett goes to the field and eats a radish. And just as she starts to get up, I say to myself: "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"
And by Pete, she gets up and says just that, word for word!
The only reference I recall for it is a strip from the comic Bloom County, which I read 20 years ago. It was a totally different (and male) character, and it was not indicated that the scene hailed from the film. And like I said, I never saw the movie before. Now, is that a scary mind or what?

Anyhoo, I am not a fan of old movies. Fred and Ginger can dance themselves raw for all I care. But I have to admit this is one friggin compelling movie. I have no interest in the era or the kind of characters, or war, and I don't like long films as a rule, and yet I dare say I will watch the whole thing.
Them thar varmints made one golddurn parhful story.

5 comments:

Christopher said...

I woke up and the time, 5:05, flashed in my mind, in red, digital numbers.

On an impulse, I turned on my bedside lamp and picked up my digital radio.

The time? 5:05.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Funny, sometimes I can do that. And sometimes I am completely off.

One evening I had been sitting talking with a nice woman friend all evening, even forgetting to turn on the lights. She looked up and asked: "wonder what the time is."
I said: "it's ten past ten. Well, eleven past ten to be exact."
She got up and fetched her watch. It was exactly eleven past ten.

My feeling is that being unemotional or feeling good facilitates such perceptions.

Anonymous said...

I'm not one for old movies either, and I dont think i've seen Gone With The Wind all the way through either.

I've had my fair share of spooky moments before too. I chalk it up to ESP, which by defination is just Extra Sensory Preception, meaning I just pick up on different signals and put them together to get an answer that is pretty close, if not exactly, right

Anonymous said...

It's so funny that you should mention this "twilight zone" moment. The same thing happened to me recently with a Tom Cruise interview on french TV. It was on the occasion of presenting "Mission Impossible 3" in Cannes.
Now, I'm not too fond of Tom Cruise. This scientology thing gives me allergic twitches, and the way he made decades-long patriot Jim Phelps into a traitor in M:I-1 left me sour till this day. M:I-2 was also way overboard in the unrealistic heroics à la John Woo. But Cruise is the kind of guy that you have to respect, whether you like him or not. He does all his stunts, and he didn't go spreading his dubious belief parading in front of the cameras under the pretense of helping Louisiana's victims, like Travolta did. What I mean is, Tom and I are not what you'd call kindred souls, to spontaneously think alike. And this was a live interview, so I couldn't have seen it in a previous life. ;-)
Well, while the french anchor asked him a few questions about himself, the movie, and finally the scientology debate (the French feel very concerned about this issue), I imagined what I'd answer if I were the famous actor being interviewed in place of Tom Cruise. And each time I spoke the 3 or 4 answers out loud, while he was listening to the translation in his earpiece. Every single time, he said the very same thing, practically word for word, right after I did. Weirdish!
Now, I'm not claiming to have ESP powers! My belief is simply, I have enough understanding of media mentality, american style, and Hollywood actors that aren't complete airheads, to guess what an ordinary, 5-minute interview would be like. Forget scientology's theories. Spontaneous intuition is the real "hidden power" of the human mind, and we all have it naturally. Sometimes, you know things without knowing that your brain knows them.
So, if only I also had acting talent and a handsome face, I could go to California and become the next Tom Cruise. I already know how to handle live interviews! Virtually. ;-)

Now, Eolake, this is just a similar experience. I really can't tell if this also explains your "precognition". (Incidentally, wasn't Cruise the lead character in Minority Report?) :-)

The bottom line is : if our personnal experience shows us that our subconscious intuition is efficient, we should learn to listen to it. Not to follow it blindly of course, but hear its advice and take it into consideration. Intuition exists, sometimes it works, and it might be very useful on occasions.

By the way, if you seek long movies that nevertheless are worth watching, you've probably seen some of these : Schindler's List, The Pianist, and Dances With Wolves.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Those are the kind of films I have an alergic reaction to without even trying to see them. I hope you don't add Titanic to the list?!

I have to admit, I am not through Gone With the Wind yet. Though I admit it is often a spectacularly effective film, I am as often repelled by the "human drama" aspect of it.

By the way, I predicted a few years ago that some day somebody would make a sappy love story about 9/11.