Saturday, April 11, 2009

The long weekend continues with self indulgence... :)

I am doing all sorts of neat stuff this weekend. Getting organized about a couple of writing projects (more about that maybe tomorrow) and I have rented a movie on my "wanna see" list for some time.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is the movie  and I think it will be a good one.  It is X rated and really about a womanizing surgeon who lived in Prague at the time of the Soviet takeover.

 The doctor is very good looking and seems to have an ongoing relationship with more than a couple of women.  I think the movie has a lot going for it for both men and women, covering erotica, social commentary, female angst and even a historical account of Czechoslovakia in the mid-late 1960s and  philosophical meaning.  

At one level, the movie details the circumstances of the lives of artists and intellectuals in Communist Czechoslovakia in the wake of the Prague Spring, and the subsequent invasion by the USSR.   At another level it is actually a fairly sensual and  "artsy" moving exploring existentialist philosophy.  So there is something in this movie for everyone.


It is an adaptation of a modernist  novel of the same title by Milan Kundera.  As I  understand, in the novel, (which I must read next), the author focuses on Nietzsche's idea of eternal return - that is, the idea that the universe and all the events therein have all happened before, and will continue to recur ad infinitum. Kundera explores this idea, offering an alternate interpretation: each of us has only one life to live, and what happens once will never occur again. He calls this idea "lightness", and refers to the concept of eternal return as "heaviness"" or "weight". 

The web site "rotten tomatoes" rates this movie highly and says "THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING is a sensual and sensitive adaptation of Milan Kundera's tragicomic existentialist novel ..."  

Will let you know if it is worth watching.  Going to finish this brief blog before I put it on.



Today was the 2nd regular season game for the TFC.   I snapped a pic from my balcony - with my binoculars I can see them run up and down centre field.  I can also hear the crowd roar with every good play!







Also wanted to tell you about my visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario  (AGO) this week.  The AGO is free on Wed


nights from 6:00 to closing at 8:30.  It is the first time I have been since it re-opened after the renovation which was completed last fall.  I was very impressed with the architecture.   I enjoyed the art, even if some of it wasn't to my taste.  Browsed through the first 2 floors.  I guess the rest will wait until my next visit.

So now, my movie!