April 2006 viewing journal

4-5-06	--	The Man with Two Brains
4-7-06	--	Somersault
4-14-06	--	Safe
4-15-06	--	Das Experiment
4-16-06	--	Grizzly Man
4-20-06	--	Bush's Brain
4-21-06	--	The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
4-23-06	--	The Year of the Yao
4-23-06	--	The Man Without a Past
4-26-06	--	To Our Death (short)
4-26-06	--	4 1/4 (short)
4-26-06	--	Memory Collector (short)
4-26-06	--	Life in Transition (short)
4-26-06	--	Puca (short)
4-26-06	--	self/worth/less (short)
4-26-06	--	Georgeous Labour of Love (short)
4-26-06	--	The Heart Collector (short)
4-26-06	--	Wilderness Within (short)
4-26-06	--	Fish Out of Water (short)
4-26-06	--	29 Reasons to Run
4-27-06	--	Hotel Rwanda
4-29-06	--	Fleeing By Night

Manson's Memo - safety pins and sewing machines

Do you know who invented the safety pin? That was Walter Hunt (1796-1859). He was a mechanic who was a prolific inventor. He also invented the fountain pen, a knife sharpener, road sweeping machinery, a flax spinner and loads of others.

One of his inventions was a sewing machine. We usually recognize Elias Howe as inventing the sewing machine. But that was twenty years after Hunt invented his. The difference is that Hunt didn’t patent his sewing machine. No doubt it could have made him a lot of money, but he worried that if he patented it and started producing it, it would put seamstresses out of work.

That sounds amazingly quaint from our Twenty-first Century point of view. Now machines do more and more work, which allow corporations to downsize and outsource their workforces. Nobody seems much to care if a new invention will eliminate jobs as Hunt cared about the seamstresses. In fact, in the business world the more jobs you can eliminate, the better for the bottom line.

Lest we think we can blame all of this on soulless corporation and their overpaid management, we need to remember that we want to pay as little as possible for all the things we want. We don’t want to pay for the kind of quality that a seamstress would put into her creations. As shareholders (and nearly all of us are in some way) we want the corporations to make money that will filter down to us.

In an age of growing industrialization, Walter Hunt was different than many of the inventors and entrepreneurs who were making their fortunes. He chose not to do it at someone else’s expense.

Everyday we do many things that affect people around us. It would be nice if we learned to think about the effects our actions and decisions have on others as well as ourselves. Maybe Walter Hunt doesn’t fit the Twenty-first Century business paradigm, but I do think he understood what Jesus meant when he said, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.�

שלןמ

(shalom)

Somersault

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Australia)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

What kind of film can win every award that it is eligible for? In 2004, Somersault won thirteen Australian Film Institute awards, sweeping every category for a non-documentary feature film. Even considering that the competition included only Australian films, that is a pretty impressive record. Now it is coming to the U.S.

Somersault is the story of Heidi, a sixteen year old woman/girl who runs away from home after her mother catches Heidi and her mother’s boyfriend beginning to kiss in bed. She runs to the ski area in the Snowy Mountains, expecting a past acquaintance (perhaps from a one night stand) to take her in. He doesn’t even remember her, so she has to find a way to take care of herself. She uses the ploy she may well have learned from her mother – using sex to be taken care of. She heads to a bar to get picked up.

Eventually, she connects with Joe, who may be a better person than she has known before. He is hesitant to sleep with her, but she’s hard to resist. In time their relationship grows more and more complicated. Neither has really loved before, but they are trying to figure out how to love, rather than just have sex.

When they meet, Heidi wants them to compare terrible things they’ve done. She seems to need to know how good or bad Joe might be. She obviously has a fair amount of guilt and self hatred growing from her betrayal of her mother – something Heidi considers unforgivable.

Heidi is at a strange point in life – somewhere between childhood and adulthood. We see her looking through her scrapbook filled with cards of unicorns and other mementos of her past; then we see her trying to be a woman – not only through her sexuality, but trying to live on her own in an apartment that Irene, a motel owner (and Heidi’s surrogate mother in the story,) is letting her use. The apartment was Irene’s son’s, but he is away in jail (someone else who must have done something terrible.) Abbie Cornish does a wonderful job in her role as Heidi to highlight that transition between childhood and womanhood she is in. At times she looks young and vulnerable; at other times she has a maturity about her that may be beyond her years.

Writer/director Cate Shortland tells the story relying a great deal on her visual sense. Water is ever present. The story takes place within a town built on a lake, and the lake is included in many shots. Water also is used to give us an idea of what is going on in Heidi’s world. Early on we see a beautifully filmed shot of Heidi drinking from a water fountain (as she begins to drink in life). A bit later we see Joe pouring hot water on his truck’s windshield to de-ice it (as he and Heidi may be de-icing one another’s sense of love.) Still later we see a shot of Heidi laying face down in the bathtub, covered with water (being buried by all the cares of her world?) and then turn over (starting a new life?) Later we see Heidi’s fury as she sprays water on the window of the service station she is working at, while the co-worker she is angry with is on the other side of the glass. In between these are still other images that focus on water.

An interesting part of the film is about the way the film makes use of sex. Whenever we see people having sex on screen, it is always in a using and abusive relationship. Although we know that Joe and Heidi have sex, we never see them as it happens. The result is that the non-discriminating sexual encounters that Heidi takes part is are seen as unhealthy and dangerous, but saves the possibility of a healthier sex life which is based in love.

There is a minor subplot that deals with a boy with Asperger Syndrome (somewhat similar to autism). He is unable to interpret non-verbal clues, and so is unable to understand what other people are feeling. This makes those with Asperger very socially awkward since they don’t know when they say or do something upsetting. One of the issues that Joe and Heidi have to deal with is their lack of understanding what the other is feeling. They have no understanding about how what they do affects the other.

Somersault touches on themes of forgiveness. Heidi doesn’t believe she can be forgiven her terrible wrong, because she doesn’t forgive herself. Yet she discovers that the Irene still loves her son deeply in spite of the ghastly crime he has committed. Will her mother welcome her back after this, as the father welcomed the prodigal in Jesus’ parable? Will Joe and Heidi be able to forgive each other for the things they have done?

Coming of age stories such as Somersault do more that just look at the transition between child and adulthood. They also reflect the issues that are always a part of our lives. Issues around sexuality, our effects on others, and forgiveness are not settled once we become adult. Perhaps we never really “come of age;� we are continually growing and changing.

— Overview

Manson's Memo - Opening Day

Opening Day. As I write this, I have a baseball game on the radio as the season gets underway. God is in heaven and all is right with the world.

As the new season starts, it is a time of new beginnings. Baseball looks like it was last year, but there are many changes. Some players have moved to new teams. Some young players are getting their first chance in The Show. Some players are coming back from injuries and surgeries hoping that they can regain their old form. Some fans are excited about their team’s prospects; others are disgusted over the moves their team made (or didn’t make) during the winter. Everything is made new each April when the umpire calls “Play ball� for the first time.

Baseball starts at the perfect time to reflect newness – just as spring is making itself known. In colder climates the crocuses are pushing up through the snow. My apricot tree has blossomed and has some tiny fruit starting to grow. Birds are nesting. All around us that newness is breaking out.

Baseball always manages to start within a couple weeks of Easter – sometimes Easter comes just before the season starts, sometimes a bit after the season starts. Easter is the ultimate symbol of new beginnings – the beginning of the world to come, the beginning of eternal life. Easter is a reminder that there is no situation to which God cannot bring a new beginning. As we go through the various changes and trials in life, we know that God gives life and newness even in the most difficult times.

As we continue to move through these last weeks of Lent, let us remember that Easter is its own Opening Day – the opening of life.

שלןמ
(shalom)