Movies, Movies, Movies

It's the final weekend of the Montreal Film Festival and we've been seeing movies, movies, movies. We've gone to three in the last two days and I'm going to another three tomorrow. For me, movies hold a special interest. I study them in the way I study a book when I read it. I want to try and figure out why the filmmaker made the choices he or she did: why have a certain narrator? why begin with a certain scene? why repeat certain images?

I love when my mind gets filled up the way it does during the film fest. Sometimes, when my husband and I are discussing which movies we've seen, we forget which was which... that comes of seeing so many in a short period. Another wonderful thing, and I've remarked on this before in previous blog entries, is that sometimes when you're working hard on a project the way I am working on my new manuscript (which has to do with religious faith and doubt), life delivers little gifts to keep you going. Here's an example: yesterday we were watching the Cuban movie Ciudad en Rojo (Red Hot City), directed by Rebecca Chavez, when the camera focused for a moment on an embroidery hanging on a wall. The embroidery said, and now I'm translating, "Faith which does not doubt is a dead faith." Ah ha, I thought, that's my gift! Alas, because we had biked over to the film fest (I know, I know, I'm biking again, even after pretty much swearing off it after our never-ending bike trip a few weeks ago), I was not in possession of my trusty pen and notepad -- but as soon as I came home, I jotted the line down and now I plan to find a place for it in the new book. So look out for gifts -- they don't always come neatly wrapped with bows on them. In fact, those unwrapped gifts are my favourites -- though wrapped ones can be nice, too!!