I also watched John and Mary the other night, a Peter Yates movie from 1969 with Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow. It's not a particularly good picture and, aside from a few temporal shifts, it's certainly not Godardian, but Godard is invoked early on in a scene where Hoffman [John] first meets Farrow [Mary] at a bar. He's making his way through the crowd, when he overhears a conversation about one of my favorite films, Weekend.
Dean - Whatever type of person made that movie must be sick in the head. Ten miles of traffic james and human beings eating each other in the bushes? He must be sick.
Fran - Maybe we're sick. Does that occur to you?
Dean - No it doesn't. It doesn't occur to me at all.
Mary - You blow your mind in traffic.
Dean - So, I blow my mind in traffic, but I don't eat my girlfriend.
Fran - I should be so lucky.
Dean - You know what I mean. I like a movie that has a beginning, a middle, and an end and in that order so you can follow it.
Mary - It's meant to be symbolic, Dean.
Dean - Pardon me?
Mary - I said it's meant to be...
Sensing a conversational opportunity, John interjects.
John - Symbolic. That's right. That's exactly what it's meant to be.
Mary - I beg your pardon?
John - I saw that movie at the film festival. I thought it was totally symobolic of our materialistic age.
Mary - Yeah, that's right. That's exactly what it is. Thank you very much.
John goes to fetch a round of drinks at the bar and Mary appears next to him.
John - I'm glad you liked that movie.
Mary - I didn't.
John - Really?
Mary - Not much. I just didn't like him not liking it.
Image of Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman from the IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment