Arts Explorer #5: Watch an art film and chat

Donnie, Gretchen and Frank (from Donnie Darko, 2001, Newmarket Films)

I decided to go for Donnie Darko. Nostalgia got the best of me and I went for the movie that most reminds me of high school.

There's really so much to love about this movie, especially when you're 16 but even when you're not. You've got a mysterious evil man-rabbit, time travel, an amazing 80s soundtrack, and of course, the boyish good looks of Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal...


Here's what Rose and I had to say about it after watching:

8:52 PM on Thursday February 10, 2011

roseee.l:  Heyyy

me:  ok! ready to go. how's it going?

roseee.l:  Good, tired and just finished the movie

Which btw, was my first time and I'm still processing everything that I just experienced

me:  Yeah, for sure, it's pretty intense.

roseee.l:  U shouldve warned me the level of intensity of that film

me:  Haha, you're right, I should have. Sorry!!

roseee.l:  Dude, it was produced in 2004, so I was 14

And these kind of film was not available for me

But damn I missed out

I shouldve watched it during its time of release

me:  So, first impressions? Thoughts?

roseee.l:  Uhh, definitely intense

Dark, ironice and thought provoking

me:  Yeah, agreed.

roseee.l:  Its one of those movies that made at the end of the film

I like those kind of movies

me:  Right, everything sort of comes together at the end, you mean?

roseee.l:  Where it ties altogether at the end

Yup

me:  I think a lot of the incidental things that happen along the way are really great, too...it's such an awesome teenage story, where everyone around him thinks Donnie is crazy or rebellious but really he's saving the world.

Mrs. Farmer is like everything bad about high school rolled into one person.

roseee.l:  Who is she again? Is she the gym teacher? Because I hate her guts

me:  Yes!! Evil.

roseee.l:  it arouses my hate on ignorant people

me:  I know, right? She's so sure that she's doing the right thing...

roseee.l:  *shaking my head

me:  word.

roseee.l:  There so many motifs and symbols in this film that I HAVE to rewatch it

me:  Yeah it's worth a second go, for sure...  the whole time travel thing is still really mysterious to me. I love the paths coming out of people's chests, leading them into the future!

roseee.l:  Yeah, the concept of time travel is mysterious

But even in the book on the philosophy of time travel, talking about tangent universe and other universe

Omg, mind-boggling

And its just cuz sometimes I do think about it

me:  Tell me more!

roseee.l:  Ok, well I do think about existing somewhere else that isn't real. Even if its just in my mind, I'd like to think about other possibilities out there and that these experiences wouldn't be the same if u were in the other world

Do u get it?

me:  Like another world of possibility?

Where things might be different if you made different choices, that kind of thing?

roseee.l:  Yes and no.

Not just choices but the nature of things

Being imaginative, really accepting what could be on the other side

Idk...maybe I'm not making sense

But we could tlk about another concept in the film I found interesting

me:  No no, I think I know what you mean.

But sure, what else was interesting?

roseee.l:  God

Dying alone, accepting God

Issues that the therapist thought were interesting

me:  Yes, definitely... It's a heavy statement, when she whispers in his ear, "Every living creature dies alone."

The old woman...

roseee.l:  What were u thinking?

me:  When the therapist is asking him about it, you mean?

roseee.l:  Yeah or the statement. It doesn't matter.

me:  Yeah, that's tough... in some ways I think we do, because each person only sees the world from inside him/herself, and we can't ever truly escape that... but then we're all kind of united, too. I mean, on a physical level, there's really no separation between the atoms that make up one person and the atoms that make up another... or the air... so there's no actual separation between anyone!

So I'm of two minds.

roseee.l:  I see.

me:  Don't know if that makes sense! But what were you thinking?

roseee.l:  It sucks that to explore these things, our mind must be really ffed up

I mean, it such a huge idea, how do u organize it to make sense out of it?

me:  Even harder on Gmail chat, haha

roseee.l:  And we see it in a perspective of a paranoid schizophrenic

Lmao! Definitely

D-man (from Donnie Darko, 2001, Newmarket Films)

It was tricky to talk about this movie over Gmail chat. There are so many crazy layers that it's a bit hard to wrap your mind around it!

One of my favourite things in the movie are the transparent tubes that Donnie sees coming out of people's chests. I think it's such a neat way to depict our path in life. And once you can see your pathway, you can make choices about changing it, which is fascinating.
My art word of the week, to describe these pathways, is mass or volume. Shirrmacher and Fox (2009) write that mass or volume can be shown in a way that is transparent and organic (p. 142), like the tubes in the film. They're also in motion, so they seem to be dynamic and alive.
Even they're not something we perceive in real life, the pathways seem to make so much sense in the context of movie, so I think they did a really good job of visually representing of the idea of a predetermined destiny.

I think watching "weird artsy films" is good for us ECEs because it invites us into other worlds, places we may not have imagined on our own. We can vicariously explore issues, questions, thoughts that aren't accessible in our everyday lives. I think we've got to learn to get weird sometimes in order to come up with innovative ways of working with young children, and this kind of movie makes your brain work a little bit. Would children be interested in a project on time travel? Or coming up with animal alter-egos? I think they just might.

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References

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art and creative

     development for young children. Belmont, CA:

     Delmar.