[poster for Saturn in Opposition]

Yesterday I watched the film Saturn in Opposition by Ferzan Optzek, who's an apparently acclaimed and prominent Italian, and openly gay, director. Unsuprisingly, I've never heard of him or seen one of his films before... Reading reviews after the film I was put off by how negative the reaction was. I guess if youve seen some of his other films it's more of the same old but since I havent, the movie wasnt jaded by that fact. I thought it was great and sad but sad in a life-affirming way rather than a downbeat one. Others said it was far too much of a fairy tale because of how well the straight and queer characters got along and how close everyone was together but so fucking what? Escapism from a dour reality should be embraced not critized. A lot of other films show the sad sides of queer life so why focus negatively on one who ignores it? I guess its kind of ironic to have an escapist sort of film incidentally be super depressing, but the relationships in this film were refreshingly optimistic. Just because a film doesnt depict reality it doesnt make its merit as a film any less (unless thats what they were setting out to do in the first place, and failed). Judging from other Italian works (which I'm not too familiar with so please understand the joke that is my generalization) that country just has a thirst for drama and sadness. Which is healthy in certain doses, but so are fairy tales.

Also, it doesn't hurt that the majority of the cast was hot as hell. Especially Michelangelo Tommaso (my future husband).

Michelangelo on the left.

Probably!

A change

For the past two years I've kept a sort of documentation of my life over on my Tumblr, but lately it just doesnt cut it any more. I want to talk about serious things and issues and write as long as I please and the atmosphere on Tumblr seems to be: keep things short and coat it in 15 layers of irony. Which is all right for little things and I'll still use it from time to time, but for now I need to sort of grow up and take things seriously and get organized. Tumblr is ephemeral, its easy escape, its a distraction, but I need goals and things to look forward to and a place to truly vent. I turned 18 in March and as fun as it is to pretend I'm still a teen for a while, the reality is (outside of literal interpretation of the word teen) I'm not.

Also, excuse the seemingly pretentious French url. "thebigpicture.blogspot.com" was already taken.