Paris, je t'aime

I just watched paris, je t'aime. Which I think translates to Paris in love or something to that effect. It had a trully amazing concept. The movie was made up of 20 5 minute short films. Each done by a different writer/director/cast/crew. The thing that united all the films was that it all took place in Paris and was about love in one way or another. It opens with a short about a miserable man who can not find love anywhere. He sizes up couples who pass him as he watched through the mirror in his car. He looks at them approaching then follows them through his rearview mirror. A woman approaches whom he is very attracted to, when he turns to look at her in the mirror, she is not there. lol At first I foolishly thought to myself "what is she a vampire or something" but what happened is she fell by his car, out of his view. They wind up having a conversation, as she rests. Very simple plot and everything but it was quite delightful.

Out of the twenty I distinctly remember only a handful. My two favorite involve teenage love and early twenties love. The first takes place at a riverbank. Three young french boys sit by the river. Two of them call out to every woman who passes. They spit out typical pick up lines getting turned down more severly the harder they persist. The third boy sits there quietly eating his sandwich. It's evident he is not gay because he make eye contact with a Sihk girl to his left. They shy smile but he does not speak. The friends continue to oogle the women who pass. They girl gets fet up and leaves. As she walks away she trips over a rock and cuts herself. The teenager immediately comes to her aid. He helps her up and picks her bag from the dirt. Later on when talking with her grandfather about the situation, upon being thanked he responds "it was only natural." The other boys who were yelling to women didnt even flinch when the girl fell. They even laughed and made a joke or two. That is the difference between hormones and romance. After Francois (the romantic) helps Zarka with her wounds she leaves to go to the mosque. Francois does something that i could never do. Something I wish society deemed acceptable. I feel like so many courtly love traditions have been worn down over the years. In women's attempts to play hard to get or merely to protect themselves...any form of uninvited pursuit has been greatly frowned upon. In the film, he goes to the mosque and waits for her. When she comes out they speak and she introduces him to her grandfather. The three walk, and speak kind words. But I feel now, these days in New York, I would never pursue a woman like that. If I gave a woman my seat on the bus or if we shared a moment somewhere, and I did not get her number, it would be odd to show up somewhere she made reference to. Perhaps that is just me and I am off on social norms but that is my view of the current world. I am ever trying to not be a 'creep' but in this day and age following your impulses deems it so. It's really annoying. There was a time when it was acceptable to go to a woman's window sill uninvited inorder to woo her. Now, things are just differnt. Everyone is so sensative and scared of global warming, terrorism, egg whites. The power of the unknown is consuming and we are all prisoners of fear.

I realize this is contradictory of my most recent post on the class blog but I guess I am expressing the hypocrasy of the duality in technology here in contemporary America.