Food Symbolism and The Apu Trilogy

Last Christmas, I fell in love with a Bengali director, Satyjit Ray and I watched the whole series of The Apu Trilogy during the holiday. It consists of three movies, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. The directorial debut "Pather panchali" (Song of the Little Road) (1955) which depicts the childhood of Apu, including the tragic death of his beloved elder sister, Durga, in the rural countryside of Bengal in the 1920s. The second one Aparajito (The Unvanquished) is about the hardship Apu and his mother faced after the sudden death of his father, who is a priest, after moving to Benares where his father can earn a better living. The last one Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) is my least favorite one, describing his adulthood, his poems, his unexpected marriage, death of his wife and his tension with his son.

One of the fascinating themes of three movies is food and symbolism:
1. The 'sinful" act of stealing of fruits by Durga from the rich neighbor's orchard is a kind of resistance to the inequality of the society. Previously, the orchard belonged to their family before their father was forced to pay the debt for his brothers.
2. The question of morality is further complicated as this "immoral" including sharing the fruits with the old, weak Auntie Indur who is being ignored or even as a burden by people and society. Is this act 'noble' or 'immoral'?
3. The compelling power of material in the transformation of the rural area. Food, sweet in this case, which is a driving source of social relationship between Durga and the children of the rich family and even the respect for her father.
4. Food as a language for communication and mean of social exchange: the feast during the birth of a male child - Apu, the joy of festivals, the relationship of neigbours (borrowing matches), the love of mother and wife (how satisfied Sarbajaya was when she watched her husband and son ate), the economic conditions (the rich neigbour discovered how poor Apu's family is after the long-leave of the father to town by observing the quantity of rice stored in the house).

Le mepris

Le mepris (1963) ‘Contempt' by Jean-Luc Godard

The greatness of “Contempt” I find is that the tension between history and modernity, “real” or “unreal,” that Jean-Luc Godard, with his unique touch of eternity beauty, wants us to see but the people in the story, tragically, cannot. “Contempt” is one of the few movies I find addressed to the intrinsic problems of the pure relationship of modernity. The free-floating nature of love which builds on mutual trust and intimacy which are closely related to the negotiation of self-identities (Michel Piccoli being a writer for the screen (for money and for eros), for play (his super-ego), for power (through his wife as ‘gift’); Brigitte Bardot being a member of lower social class (typist), dependent housewife and fantasy of power (being mistress of conspicuous, wily, crude and powerful American producer). Yet, harmony of nature (husband-wife relationship) seems to be at odd with modernity (demand for private sphere, negotiating of self-authenticity) which is conditioned by capitalism (money for new home, living, freedom in choice of work (for play not for screen), for ‘art’ not for market. Intimacy requires self-disclosure through communications (the sender and receiver on the message of love) which seems always go wrong.

Reference:
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

The Fall of Wong Kar Wai

The film of Wong Kar Wai’s first English language feature, "My Blueberry Nights" is a kind of insincere talk. Born and I regard our attendence as a support for a local director, rather than having high articulation. To no surprise, it is really bad - not only in the weak storyline but also on the message delivered, the acting, the rhythms and even art direction and music. After stripping off his oeuvre of his Hong Kong nostalgic mood, the movie highlighted all the weakness of the director. The fact of having no good director from Hong Kong really saddens me.