Jellyfish **1/2

Directed by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen
Written by Shira Geffen
With SArah Adler, Assi Dayan, Tzahi Grad, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, Noa Knoller, Ma-Nenita De Latorre, Zaharira Harifai
In Hebrew w/ English Subtitles
Released 2007

This is an odd little surreal movie with an abundance of symbolism and poetry. There is even a poem written and then read at one of the character's deaths in one of the more beautiful scenes.

There are 3 main story lines that overlap. The first story is about a newlywed couple that has a troubled honeymoon after the bride breaks her leg. Things go all wrong from the start. They settle on a local honeymoon but the bride is never happy. I got the feeling that she was nervous about starting her conjugal duties and looking for excuses to delay the act. To be sure the groom was very frustrated. it's at this point he meets an older, attractive poet. The bride is jealous, though nothing happens between the husband and the poetess. The bride writes her own poetry perhaps in response to the competition with the poet. I'll stop summarizing the story line here since it would be a spoiler.

Then there is the story of a disheveled waitress who meets a mute young girl who comes out of the sea. She takes in the girl, but then loses her and proceeds to look for her. In the meantime, she tries to deal with her past which involves her divorced parents and perhaps a lost childhood. At one point she wants to see a friend's home movies which are boring, because she has never seen any of her own. The child is a catalyst for this journey in the past as well as an important symbol of the movie - the sea and water.

The 3rd story line is about a Philippine woman, who is nursing an elderly lady, crotchety and grumpy old lady that mistreats her. She puts up with this abuse even though she dearly misses her own child. The irony of course is that she's taking care of other people's problems even though she clearly would rather take care of her own son (and who wouldn't). This is perhaps the most conventional story of the film and perhaps the sweetest. The old lady and her nurse come to an understanding of sort and bond.

These narratives all overlap and the film cuts back and forth between narratives. Perhaps the main narrative is that of the waitress. There is a real question as to whether the little girl is real or unreal - perhaps a ghost, or the waitress' imagination or whatever. That's the part that lends its surreal feeling to the film. When the girl and the waitress finally part ways, there is the feeling that the waitress has found what she was looking for and the waitress may now continue on with her life and grow to be a content adult.

And then there was the water motif. I had a better idea what it was about when watching, but since a week has passed, I'm not so sure anymore. But here are some examples. There are periodic images of ships in a bottle. The Philippine nurse buys her son a ship as a birthday present. The little girl comes from and returns to the sea. The waitress has a extraordinary memory of her parents at the seashore. In one scene her answering machine is floating and taking messages in her flooded apartment.

Time and memory are also major themes of the movie. Memories turn into reality, etc. That has to do with the waitress' mind set in the movie.

All in all, a good film, perhaps a little too ephemeral, but plenty to think about, to absorb and some nice visuals and moods to enjoy.

This is a trailer to the film to give you an idea what it looks like -



And here is someone else's opinion -

The Bloody Chamber ***1/2

By Angela Carter
Published 1979 - Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1980 Harper and Row, 1981 penguin Books (UK), 1987 Penguin Books (USA), 1993 This Edition
126 pages

Angela Carter has written several short story books. Is seems to have been her niche. I have only read one other book by her which was also short stories. Her work is a mixture of the baroque love for detailed and flowery language and profane subject matter. So while I'm enjoying the sometimes ribald stories with their contemporary feel, I am also enjoying (and often struggling with too) her beautiful language and poetry.

This is a book of retold fairy tale stories. I won't go into detail about the plots, because they are somewhat familiar, but I will tell you the traditional stories that they are based on. The title story is based on the the Bluebeard tale. There are two different versions of Beauty and the Beast. One of the funnest stories is a version of Puss n' Boots and that scampy cat. There are several varieties and themes of the little girl in the woods (Little Red Riding Hood) and also some vampire and werewolf stories.

I can see several themes being displayed here. There is always a beast or monster. And then there is always the sexually ripe young girl as one might expect. Perhaps the thing that always stands out is the sadness and melancholy of these beasts. Most of them seem to suffer and there is a nobleness. In one of my favorite stories, The Lady of the House of Love, a vampiress mourns her condition, but can't resist her primal bestial instincts and desires. When one young man comes to visit, she changes into a human so as not to kill him out of affection for him, thus ending her own life. The piece is beautiful and tragic.

In our book club, many people hated this book. I think it was mostly because of the difficulty of the dense language. There is the general argument that what one does not understand, one does not like. On the other hand, there is also the argument that elitists only like the difficult works because they are difficult. Yes the language is difficult. I had to slow down many times to figure out what was going on. Sometimes it was impenetrable. But even then, the language was so beautiful, I was able to get a feeling or an emotion though my complete understanding was somewhat obstructed. Sometimes the language has a feel or an emotion and does not always have to communicate straight narrative elements.

And also there is enjoyment in going back and deciphering the text. It's not easy work. The reader has a job to do. With each rereading, the stories and language start to unfold and there is new idea for the reader to think about. It's like what some people say about quality music. Each new listen brings something new to the ear. In this case, each new rereading brings something new to the brain to enjoy and savour. This book will definitely have something to give to the reader after many readings.