Life vs. Art

I am not a writer or an artist. I only read books occasionally and watch movies sometimes. I used to listen to music and go to concert performances, but I no longer have the time nor the opportunity. In a life of somewhat monotonous routines, I often want to escape into movies which portray a different life.

Most people including myself like movies that feel real because we identify with the characters. But it does not mean that we want to watch real life. Just earlier today I had a discussion with a friend on the movie "One Day", which I did not particularly like but left an impression because I was surprised that a movie like that could be produced. My friend wrote, "But I do wish the filmmakers set up Anne Hathaway's death and sold it a little better. Her death was completely out of the blue. I had not been expecting it, and didn't see any signs of it coming. It felt arbitrary, like the filmmakers were breaking the bargain with the viewer, since the viewer expected from the beginning of the movie that the relationship would be developped in an interesting way. Yes, in real life, death is often unexpected and out of the blue. But in a movie, the filmmaker has a contract with the viewer to make it more organic to the rest of the story line, perhaps by dropping hints earlier or making her character ruminate on death earlier in the story; otherwise, it feels like a cop out."

Indeed when art completely imitates life, we are not interested. When we go to the movies, we are thrilled at those totally unlikely but yet predictable turn of events that either reunite long lost lovers, or save people from near death. We do not want to see "real life" in movies, when the turn of events are totally likely and yet utterly unpredictable. Therefore, it is a wonder that a movie like "One Day" was even made.

Good-bye, Paul Bettany!

I can't stand the actor Paul Bettany - that much is clear to me. He has become another actor whom I simply cannot bear to see at all, aside from Nicholas Cage. It is interesting how one develops these strong feelings that seem to have no rational reasons. After all, there are much worse actors than these two, and much worse-looking ones too. Somehow I have such strong aversion to them that I swear never to see another movie with Paul Bettany in it, just as I have not seen a movie with Nicholas Cage for the past 10 years!

The last draw is the movie "Creation". Paul Bettany plays Charles Darwin. I feel that I should really be sympathetic to his character, but I just could not shake off the feeling that it was Paul Bettany who was acting agonized as opposed to Charles Darwin in mourning for his beloved daughter. I also rather hated him in "The Da Vinci Code" and "A Beautiful Mind". Oh, I did see that horrible movie "The Tourist" which turned out to be a clumsy remake of the French movie "Anthony Zimmer" as well. It does not matter where I saw Paul Bettany, he was always annoying.

From now on, I will not see another film with him in it. He has joined Nicholas Cage officially.

Observations

As a professional woman, I am naturally interested in reading about successful women in science, politics and business. There indeed have been many inspiring women across all walks of life. There is ongoing debate on whether we have reached an age when a woman truly has equal opportunities to men. On the surface, I would say that things have never been better. But we are not living in a society where there are true equal opportunities for women, and I am not sure that there will ever be a time. That is, if women want to have everything in life that men do - such as family, kids and career.

Let's take a look at some famous women who are truly inspiring. I now notice that they were either born into privilege, married to privilege, or remained single or childless. In politics, there have been Indira Ghandi, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton. The former two were born into privilege and inherited their status. The latter two were married to wealth and power, respectively. In business, there have been Katharine Graham, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and the rising star of Sheryl Sandberg. Mrs. Graham inherited The Washington Post. Whitman, Fiorina and Sandberg married rich husbands who were also not busy for one reason or another. A working mother from humble background married to someone without money or power has a natural disadvantage in business or politics, unless she wants to be a bad mother intentionally. After all, Katharine Hepburn once famously said, "only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That's what I've done."

Perhaps the only area where women could have a real chance in equality is in academia, which does not require extensive travel, rigid hours, and maximum flexibility in one's personal life. Although some of the notable female scientists were single and childless such as Rosalind Franklin and Barbara McClintock, there also have been Marie Curie, her daughter Irene, Rosalyn Yalow, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider.

Therefore, ambitious young girls, please consider science as a career! :)

The Iron Lady

While I am a huge fan of the actress Meryl Streep, I was somewhat disappointed in the movie "The Iron Lady". My disappointment has nothing to do with her acting, but rather to do with how simple they have made the story of Margaret Thatcher's life.

Perhaps it is easy to forget that Margaret Thatcher was elected to be Prime Minister of Britain back in 1979, which was 33 years ago. Considering that there are still so few women leaders in politics even today, her accomplishment was nothing short of astounding. I have always been fascinated by her, although I know little about her. Unfortunately, this movie was not much help. It was more of a caricature of a super ambitious woman wanting to be different from everyone else, only to end up in a way like everyone else. When Denis Thatcher proposed to her, she emphatically said that she refused to die washing tea cups, meaning that she would not be content as a housewife. The end of the movie showed her washing a tea cup in her kitchen, long after she left politics. Does it mean that her life was "much ado about nothing"?

Obviously the way we die, or at least the way most of us will die, will be like everyone else, just like the way we were born were just like everyone else. But it is how we lived the productive years of our lives that truly defined us, and not the years when we were babbling infants, or the years when we are perhaps plagued by dementia, as is the case with Margaret Thatcher.

I hope that there will be another cinematic attempt in portraying her life that is much more sophisticated and complex.

First Ladies

Only when I read about the Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States did I realize that he is married to the famous folk singer Peng Liyuan. I had not heard of him prior to his visit (mostly because I have not been following Chinese politics and not because he was unknown), but I surely have known about his wife since I was a little girl growing up in China. She was one of the most famous singers in China, regularly appearing on TV in various gala shows.

Considering that Xin Jinping is supposed to succeed Hu Jintao as the next leader of China, I commented to a friend that it will mark the first time that China will have a glamorous "First Lady" whose fame in China long proceeded her husband's. My friend quipped back, "Yes indeed. There could be a singing competition among all the First Ladies and she will easily beat everyone else!"

Speaking of First Ladies, there are the glamorous and visible ones such as Michelle Obama in the United States, Carla Bruni Sarkozy in France and Asma al-Assad in Syria. There have been influential ones such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton. More often than not, the First Ladies have been quiet and absent from the public eye, especially in China. Perhaps the painful memory from the Cultural Revolution has made the Chinese especially wary of the influence of a First Lady, due to the psychotic Madame Mao (i.e. Jiang Qing). I must admit that even now I have no idea about the woman to whom the current leader of China Hu Jintao is married, assuming that he is married.

Therefore, it will be interesting to watch what Peng Liyuan will be like once she becomes the "First Lady" of China.