Now playing at the Avon is Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man” much of which was shot on location in Providence. The film stars Joaquin as “a tormented philosophy professor who finds a will to live when he commits an existential act” as the requisite much younger woman, this time Emma Stone, throws herself at his feet. (A complete change of direction for Mr Allen! This will alter the course of American cinema forever.)
But I like these actors and I will probably end up seeing the movie so I can show off my knowledge of Heidegger and Spinoza and hey that’s the Classic Café on Westminster Street!
Also visible in the trailer: Joaquin roaming the stacks of the Athenaeum, as well as the two stars dining at Loie Fuller which actually looks like a movie set. From The New York Times;
The story turns on chance and its absence and starts humming when, after eavesdropping on a dramatic conversation in a diner, Abe decides to commit a crime in the name of a greater good. Armed with poison and some spurious reasoning, he does the deed and finds himself rejuvenated creatively, spiritually, sexually: It makes him tumescent.
Eeew.
The movie is rated R. Running time 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Avon Cinema, 260 Thayer Street
Looking forward to this movie. I suggest people read or reread “Irrational Man” by a man named Barrett (spellling?). Big 60’s existentialist book. And at least read the Wikipedia entry on Andre Gide. I love how Allen brings the French existentialists to life, as does Tarantino in “Pulp Fiction.” Young graduates have no knowledge of these writers, it’s all lit crit and no human meaning other than hegemony and parochial identity politics and exclusionary ideology. OMG, I’m an old crank. But not really. Less elitely educated young people with whom I have conversations are not part of all this. Some Ivies I’ve had conversations with think lit crit and post-medernism it’s all a crock, but are reluctant to say so to someone my age because they thin k we all hold to these ideologies. They actually enjoy hearing about the French existentialists. The modernists strove to undo the medieval mindset of rationaized “essences” determining reality, replacing that intellectual construct with “experience in the world” mediated through our senses, with therefore a need to educate and expand what our sense can sense through the arts and sciences. from there we construct patterns of meaning or personal meaning, creating, yes, essences to live by. But not ideologies that bind us narrowly. Oh well, another wasted sermon, lol.