HOLY WEEK UPDATE: MEDIA, MOVIES, etc.

Last Thursday, I heard over the radio the story about two pygmy whales (a female and her calf) who had beached in New Zealand. A sandbar had confused them, and people worked for 1 1/2 hours to save them but they kept swimming back to shore. Just when they were about to give up, a bottlenosed dolphin appeared, communicated with the whales, and led them to the open sea. The dolphin is called Moko and is known to play with swimmers.

I thought this was a heart warming story.

That is until I heard the story about the toddler who was hit by a van. The toddler was with her mom and another brother. The mom was doing the laundry. Apparently the toddler tripped, then ran, and was swiped by a van.

That story sent me into a mild depression. I felt sorry for the child, for the mother, for the man who had accidentally killed her.

Feeling sober, I read (or tried to read) The New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. I enjoyed his Seven Storey Mountain, but I've been struggling with this one. I found a Thomas Merton site where people talked about what made them read Thomas Merton, and most entries lauded Merton, except for one that went on about Merton abandoning a woman and his out-of-wedlock child, and how he later had a liason with a young nurse. To those who don't know Merton was a Trappist monk and one of the great Christian thinkers.

I'd heard about the woman and child; this is mentioned in the Introduction of the Seven Storey Mountain. The business of the nurse is mentioned briefly in another Merton-related book. When I first learned about this second liason, I did feel disappointed but I do realize he was just a flawed man after all, one of God's broken vessels. Well ... like the rest of us.

Still in a somber mood, I rented Black Orpheus, the 1959 Brazilian film based on the Orpheus-Eurydice myth. I also have Into Great Silence, Philip Groning's documentary about the Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps. The latter is the perfect Holy Week movie - serene, quiet, spiritual, contemplative.

I found these movies, as I found The Last Wave, at Vidiot on Pico Blvd, Santa Monica. I forgot to report on The Last Wave - I enjoyed it more than the first time I had seen it. There were certain aspects of the film which I had missed the first time. For instance, the matter of the mask. I understood that the implication was that people who looked like the Richard Chamberlain character had been in Australia long ago, but that their kind had vanished. The prediction of the wall painting was that the second wave would happen, wiping out the second wave of white people.

And meantime, I've colored 60 eggs - yellow and red only, because those are the only food dyes I have.
~~~
P.S. I found several articles about dolphins including Petitions to Stop Their Slaughter - read below:

Dolphin Saves Man from Shark Attack

Dolphins Save Swimmer from Shark

Dolphin Saves Boy's Life

Dolphin Saves Stranded Whales

YouTube - The Superhero Dophin Who Helps Save Lives

Stop the Dolphin and Whale Killings in Taiji

End Dolphin Slaughter in Japan

ART FILMS - PETER WIER'S THE LAST WAVE

In the late 1970s I saw Peter Wier's The Last Wave, set in Australia. The only thing I remember is the scene of a man standing on the beach and a huge tsunami-like wave curls upward behind him. I also recall there were aborigines in this film.

Well since we have just visited Australia, I had a hankering to rent this film. It wasn't available at Blockbuster, but I did find it in Vidiot on Pico, Santa Monica. I have it in VHS and can't wait to see it.

I love films - good films, I mean. I generally do not like plot-driven films; I find them predictable, formulaic. Quite a lot of American films are plot-driven and I'll watch them and enjoy watching them because the conflict is strong and it's like eating cotton candy, just easy and pleasurable. But the next day I can barely remember the film. The bad guys, good guys, and plot lines merge and I have to work hard to differentiate one film from another.

I prefer films that are character-driven. I can still delight in remembering Raise the Red Lantern for instance, or the early Ingmar Bergman films - Wild Strawberries especially. The Story of the Weeping Camel was also quite good. I've discovered that there are some good Chinese and Indian films. Sometimes, even if the movie isn't well done, if the setting is different and interesting to look at, I'll be entertained.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see The Last Wave again, especially since I've seen some of Australia. I've found that if I've been to a place, like China or India, I have a better appreciation of their movies.