Rewind #32

Johnny Flynn: A Larum (2008)

Nanna tells me that this album sounds like the Beatles. I don't know if that's because Johnny Flynn is English or because it has pop melodies that reminisce upon a past presence. It definitely takes me back to a time before I understood how to study music with a learned ear. I remember watching the movie Yellow Submarine sometime during the seventies, sometime during the era when my imagination didn't need extra stimulation to see the kaleidoscope arrangements of the universe. That movie was crazy, wild and woolly, and it scared the hell out of me. There are certain vivid primal recollections that I have with music and movies. I'll hear a song that I can't recall ever hearing before it weaves its way through my body like an aural snake. I'll have a strange vision that emanates deep from within my mind, edited with an uncanny precision. Nothing from my life could possibly exist in such a way but there they are, affecting the very heart of me. Sometimes I want to search out those responsible for this remembering but then another part of me whispers from down a long chasm, "don't chase it away, let it lie coiled deep within your warmth."



Bella: Alejandro Gomez Monteverde (2006)

Bella is a love story. Victor Frankl said that the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart is the salvation of man through love and in love. The young chef, Jose, embodies this ideal in this movie. He embraces love for the simple sake of appreciating another human being, not because he wants or needs something from her, but simply because she is human. It's not a type of love that we ordinarily see upon the big-screen. This is a love of family and friendship and care, a love that searches for the essence of life and embraces the energy of existence. It's a love that happens to surround each and every one of us all the time. Jose simply notices it and embraces it. He reaches out because a long time ago there was an accident, which he played a crucial role, that destroyed this love swiftly and decidedly. Jose has another chance to make a difference in life, to help love thrive and that's what he chooses to do. It's beautiful and I can appreciate a movie with that kind of message. It makes me want to go and look at my children while they sleep.