Monday, March 18, 2013

Existentialism

Existentialism defines itself: one emphasizes, of course, in oneself. There's nothing more unique and valuable than our own experience, but still our existence itself is unexplainable, sometimes absurd and tiring. All existentialist movies by Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson and Michelangelo Antonioni seem to be great movies, indeed. I will find a time on vacation to see them (as well as some Film Noir movies I haven't seen yet). 
Now, talking about more recent examples, I could somehow identify Antonioni's 'L'Avventura' with Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', where nothing in the characters' lives is changed and they end up living the same misery they have at the beginning of the movie (a few could think this is a movie about some American being seduced by a bohemian Spaniard and his crazy ex-wife, but I think it is more deep than that... one can simply get that from the opening scene that introduces to us the girls 'Vicky and Cristina decided to spend the summer in Barcelona...).



Another great example is, of course, 'Groundhog Day' in which this man will have to live the same day (the Groundhog Day) over and over again until he gets it all right... 


Finally, and the best of all, these series of pure existentialist videos of Henri, the cat:







(The series continues with more videos, it's great!)

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