Second Life

A while ago, I have seen the American romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb, that in fact isn't a romantic comedy at all.

It is the story of a guy who falls in love with a girl who doesn't give a damn about him.

Well, maybe just a little bit. The two are having "something", actually, a kind of a love affair, quite typical of our days (of winter, not of summer): they have sex, they hang out together, but the way he and she are living all this is completely different. He is looking for more, she is looking for less. For nothing at all, as a matter of fact.

As it is often the case in my existence, cinema enlighted me about life and the world around me through a very simple mechanism.

At a certain point of the story, she invites him to her birthday party (at her place). He goes there and, since the moment he rings the doorbell of the apartment, the screen is divided in two: one side is for Reality, the other one for Expectations.

Useless to say, what it is shown in the two screens is very different: the guy is longing for a super romantic night, while the girl is showing to all her friends an engagement ring. The only small problem is that, well, the guy she is engaged to, is not our hero.

Looking at that split screen I had a great satori: BAAANG!!!

Voilà, cinema in just few seconds showed me the way to give a frame to all those moments (oh, so many) where reality and expectations are not exactly the same.

It helps, I tell you. It even works, sometimes.

It is like seeing your life from a distance, it is like not being you, but some pathetic guy on a screen.

It is you, of course, you who just said the word not to say, did the thing not to do, dreamt the dream not to have.

But you can always pretend.

This is why cinema is (oh!) so much better than life.

Zazie

ps I wasn't able to find a decent clip from the movie showing the split-screen scene I talk about in this post. BUT. Looking for that scene, I bumped into a very lovely video made by the film-maker together with the two main actors. One of those rare cases where reality wins over expectations.

You see, cinema never lets me down... (and hey, I can KILL for her dress!)