Nu mi-au plăcut niciodată genul de filme de dragoste siropoase, exagerate, cu iubirea învelită în hârtie roz bonbon, dulce de ţi se strepezesc dinţii. Însă îmi plac poveştile de dragoste smart, reale, cu personaje puternice, cu dragostea prezentată exact aşa cum e ea: cu bune, cu rele, cu certuri, cu despărţiri, cu nepotriviri şi suspine. Poveştile care îţi schimbă sau lărgesc perspectiva asupra iubirii, care te învaţă ceva, care te fac să te gândeşti la propria ta poveste, de dragoste sau de viaţă. Dacă şi tu eşti genul de om care strâmbă din nas la poveştile de iubire tip Hollywood, atunci această listă cu filme de dragoste inteligente şi deloc siropoase e pentru tine.
- Annie Hall (1977)
Annie Hall este filmul filmelor, iar categorisirea lui ca fiind comedie romantică nu-i face dreptate. Povestea se învârte într-adevăr, în jurul unui cuplu, Annie şi Alvy, însă este mult mai mult decât o simplă poveste de dragoste. Este o poveste despre introspecţie, despre sinceritate cu tine însuţi şi cu restul lumii, despre răbdare, despre viaţa amoroasă după ce dispar flurturaşii de la început. Annie Hall ar trebui predat la şcoală, cu rol de educaţie emoţională. Umor inteligent, o oarecare timiditate a personajelor, discuţii intelectuale, ciudăţenie în comportament, drăgălăşenie şi comportament disfuncţional, toate astea se regăsesc în Annie Hall.
Diane Keaton îi împrumută personajului său un aer boem, interesant, ciudat şi totodată atrăgător. După lansarea filmului, s-a stârnit o întreagă isterie printre femeile americane, care încercau să imite stilul lui Annie. Un detaliu interesant, ţinutele androgine purtate în film chiar aparţin actriţei, aşa se îmbrăca ea în viaţa de zi cu zi. Despre Woody Allen nici nu are sens să vorbesc, cred că nimic din ceea ce aş spune eu nu s-ar ridica la înălţimea geniului său.
O altă chestie faină în film, într-o scenă din Central Park are o scurtă apariţie celebrul scriitor Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany’s).
***
Alvy: I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable.
***
Alvy: A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.
***
Alvy: Hey listen, gimme a kiss.
Annie: Really?
Alvy: Yeah, why not, because we’re just gonna go home later, right, and then there’s gonna be all that tension, we’ve never kissed before and I’ll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we’ll kiss now and get it over with, and then we’ll go eat. We’ll digest our food better.
***
Pam: Sex with you is really a Kafka-esque experience.
Alvy: Oh. Thank you.
Pam: I mean that as a compliment.
***
Annie: Alvy, you’re incapable of enjoying life, you know that? I mean you’re like New York City. You’re just this person. You’re like this island unto yourself.
Alvy: I can’t enjoy anything unless everybody is. If one guy is starving someplace, that puts a crimp in my evening.
- Trilogia Before Sunrise, Before Sunset şi Before Midnight.
Trilogia aceasta m-a cucerit de la scena de început a primului film: cei doi protagonişti citesc în tren, în drum spre Viena. În toate cele 3 filme care alcătuiesc trilogia nu se întâmplă nimic spectaculos: nu drame, nu răsturnări de situaţie, de fapt, acţiunea fiecărui film se petrece pe parcursul unei singure zile. Şi atunci, ce este atât de special la acest film? Discuţiile inteligente dintre cei doi, despre literatură, psihologie, artă, iubire, relaţii… sunt efectiv filmaţi în timp ce se plimbă, discutând. Chimia dintre actori, oraşele străbătute (Paris, Viena), totul pare atât de firesc, atât de real, încât uneori ai impresia că tragi cu urechea la o discuţie privată. Iar Julie Delphy, despre care nu mai auzisem până la acest film, face un rol extraordinar: este carismatică, inteligentă şi foarte gingaşă.
***
Jesse: You know what’s the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? It’s when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they’re thinking of you. You know, you’d like to think you’re both in all this pain but they’re just like “Hey, I’m glad you’re gone”.
***
Jesse: I kind of see this all love as this, escape for two people who don’t know how to be alone. People always talk about how love is this totally unselfish, giving thing, but if you think about it, there’s nothing more selfish.
***
Jesse: I don’t know, I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult. You know, that’s what to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I’ll just be glad when something nice happens.
***
Celine: You know, I’ve been wondering lately. Do you know anyone who’s in a happy relationship?
Jesse: Uh, yeah, sure. I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other.
Celine: Hmf. Yeah. People can lead their life as a lie. My grandmother, she was married to this man, and I always thought she had a very simple, uncomplicated love life. But she just confessed to me that she spent her whole life dreaming about another man she was always in love with. She just accepted her fate. It’s so sad.
Jesse: I guarantee you, it was better that way. If she’d ever got to know him, I’m sure he would have disappointed her eventually.
Celine: How do you know? You don’t know them.
Jesse: Yeah, I know, I know. It’s just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. That’s not based on any kind of reality.
***
Celine: I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn’t everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
***
Jesse: You know what drives me crazy? It’s all these people talking about how great technology is, and how it saves all this time. But, what good is saved time, if nobody uses it? If it just turns into more busy work. You never hear somebody say, “With the time I’ve saved by using my word processor, I’m gonna go to a Zen monastery and hang out”. I mean, you never hear that.
***
Celine: Even being alone it’s better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.
***
Celine: You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.
- The Way We Were (1973)
Cred că întrebarea care traversează acest film este: ce preferi, complexitate fascinantă, uneori dificilă, dar inteligentă şi incitantă, sau simplitate? Vrei să ai o viaţă simplă, lipsită de stres şi complicaţii, sau una grozavă, palpitantă, dar pe alocuri mai dificilă? Pe tot parcursul acestui film se face o paralelă între femeile frumuşele, deloc complicate, dar mai puţin inteligente, şi cele mai puţin frumoase poate, dar carismatice, amuzante, inteligente şi uneori complicate.
***
Katie: You’ll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do or love you as much!
Hubbell: I know that.
Katie: Well then, why?
***
Katie: I don’t have the right style for you, do I?
Hubbell: No, you don’t have the right style.
Katie: I’ll change.
Hubbell: No, don’t change, you’re your own girl, you have your own style.
Katie: But then I won’t have you. Why can’t I have you?
Hubbell: Because you push too hard, every damn minute. There’s no time to ever relax and enjoy living. Everything’s too serious to be so serious.
Katie: If I push too hard it’s because I want things to be better, I want us to be better, I want you to be better. Sure I make waves you have I mean you have to. And I’ll keep making them till you’re everything you should be and will be. You’ll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do, or to love you as much.
***
Hubbell: I’m telling you that people—people are more important than any goddamn witch hunt. You and me! Not causes. Not principles.
Katie: Hubbell, people are their principles.
