trip me
soundtracks of your lifeArchive for doña beija
chic flicks and bad love
Yesterday I had a conversation about chic flicks, with two chics. In different ways, we were all up for chic flicks. Even when we were enthusiastic about different issues of the the chic flicks, and for a while, even me I had denied the category of chic flick on some so-called-classics, we agreed that well, chic flicks are. And we are for them.
I do have another background though, the world of telenovelas. Growing up watching Doña Beija, won’t give you a rational idea of love and a sober taste in movies. Even when you may love the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, you’re still thinking that the zombie is hot. So that’s why when they tell you about “Foreign Films”, you don’t think about the slow Chinese movies where nothing happens…(except for their souls getting wiser). You think about Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour”, and Catherine Deneuve playing housewife and prostitute and living her darkest fantasies.
Having chic flicks as role models can be really harmful for someone’s romantic life, as you might expect some asshole to change and become prince charming, like Ben in “How To Loose a Guy in 10 days”. And of course, we dream about singing “You’re so Vain” to at least someone we’ve met in our life. If Carly Simon did it, why can’t we? Well, even if we do, in real life, people never change. I know because I don’t change myself. I sometimes behave and sometimes don’t, but that’s not the same. But having telenovelas as a role model can be even worse. Of course, the majority of them show”poor-girl-falls-for-rich-guy-they-are-together-after-drama”, but some of them, like Doña Beija, just show how terrible life can be and how society can destroy someones life. Dona Beija, after being kidnapped and forced to become a courtesan, returns to her hometown just to find rejection and envy. What’s her reaction? “If the world has made a courtesan of me, I’ll make the world a whorehouse”. That’s the same thing that we read in Jacqueline Sussan’s “The Valley of the Dolls”, where three girls are corrupted and destroyed by fame, ambition, and bad love. Bad sex can turn you into a bitter, frustrated person, but bad love can kill you, and that is what we learn there. The perfect housewife can become a junkie, and not a feminist idol like it’s shown in the movie, probably in a hollywood attempt of trying to give an, if not happy, encouraging ending to the story.
Chic flicks can either blind you or show you the light. When you see Meg Ryan meeting Tom Hanks in Seattle, just say no. When you see Meg Ryan anywhere, just say no. But if you see Anna Karenina dying because of guilt, open your eyes. When you see Doña Beija being isolated in her own town, beware. When you see Catherine dying of bad love, run away, because Heathcliff may still be around.
trip me 