Why not? Life is short; life is dull; life is full of pain; and this is a chance for something special.
In re-watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona this weekend, it occurred to me that the protagonist Juan Antonio is essentially a more optimistic and passionate version of Boris Yelnikoff (from Whatever Works). The films were made in sequence and it’s clear that they’re both redolent of the same philosophy, despite the rather different tone and aesthetic.
Or, more precisely, Vicky Cristina Barcelona establishes the question to which Whatever Works is the explicit answer.
CRISTINA Aren't you and Juan Antonio tempted to make love?
MARIA ELENA At the end of our marriage, we didn't. But I have to say, those feelings are coming back now. Thanks to you. In a new and deeper way.
CRISTINA Well, I wouldn't be upset about it. You know, I never want to get in the way. It wouldn't upset me at all.
MARIA ELENA I know you wouldn't be upset. The same way I get this warm feeling when I hear you both locked in passion every night. I listen and I'm happy.
NARRATOR Was Cristina OK with it when María Elena and Juan Antonio made love one afternoon? Beforehand, she gave them both her blessing but then had mixed feelings. She was not quite as open-minded as she had always imagined herself and the thought of the two of them in bed, and inevitably full of intensity, caused her some conflict. In the end, she gradually relaxed, and let herself go with the flow of things, a tolerance she was proud of.
[Scene change: Cristina walking in Barcelona with Vicky and her fiancé Doug]
CRISTINA At first it did bother me, but then I started to think about all these standard accepted clichés of love—what's right, what's wrong, what's appropriate according to the "Appropriate Police," and you know, you see how screwed up most relationship are and…
DOUG So what you're saying is you're sharing a man; you're like a Mormon wife.
CRISTINA I know it sounds strange, but actually we all contribute to the relationship and we're all really nourished by it.
DOUG But if everyone did that, society couldn't function that way.
VICKY Oh come on, let's not get into one of those turgid categorical imperative arguments. Whatever works.
I’m pretty sure the two together comprise my very favorite films.
Posted by: |